Sept. 22--Members of a coalition of unions that represent more than 20,000 Los Angeles city employees announced Tuesday that they had overwhelmingly voted to back a proposed contract with the city.
Union officials said they had boosted pay, foisted off several key concessions sought by the city and secured a commitment to hire thousands of workers to help restore city services battered during the downturn.
As a result of that hiring, "the services that the residents of this city expect to get will start to be provided at the level that they deserve," said Bob Schoonover, president of Service Employees International Union Local 721.
Schoonover and other union officials said the city had set a goal of hiring 5,000 workers in the next few years. But that number includes any vacancies it fills when employees retire.
Cheryl Parisi, chair of the Coalition of L.A. City Unions, said the city will create a committee to assess where more hiring is needed and help local trainees access those city jobs.
"This is not only a contract with city workers -- it's a contract with our communities," Parisi said.
The proposed contract would stretch until the end of June 2018. Unions in the coalition represent such workers as tree trimmers, librarians and trash truck drivers.
The deal would hold off on raises until summer 2017 -- a key point in the negotiations since the coalition of unions had previously gotten a nearly 25% raise for its members over seven years.
Union members will not face any added out-of-pocket costs for healthcare premiums, despite a public push by Mayor Eric Garcetti to make employees bear more of those costs.
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The agreement also keeps pension plans in place for existing employees but reduces the retirement benefits offered to new hires starting in 2016.
As part of that shift, the deal unravels a hotly contested plan passed three years ago to scale back pensions. Instead, new employees will be offered retirement benefits that are less costly for taxpayers than what was offered before the controversial plan was enacted, but more expensive than the package of benefits now being abandoned.
The costs of the pension changes are not yet clear. Parisi said an independent actuarial analysis of the proposal was underway and would be presented to lawmakers before they vote on the deal.
And the proposed agreement approved by union members does not alter the percentage of their pay that workers can expect to collect when they go on leave for injury -- something Garcetti had sought to curb alleged abuses of the system.
The proposed contract is expected to go to City Council in October for its approval. It follows more than a year of bargaining that had been punctuated with protests outside City Hall. City officials announced they had reached a tentative deal with the coalition of unions last month.
Times staff writers David Zahniser and Peter Jamison contributed to this report.
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