Brothers and Sisters,
Unions United / County Coalition of Unions - Solidarity Equals Strength
Local 1014 is a partner and Co-Chair of the County Coalition of Unions, a powerful group of organized Unions representing County Workers in all aspects of service to the public. The County Coalition of Unions representing nearly 50,000 men and women who work for the County, exists as a longstanding committee formed under the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. This amazing group of Unions harness the power of all 850,000 workers in LA County. If there is a job in LA County, the CCU has members we represent.
While we operate as a Coalition for so many issues and items we deal with at the County, the State, and in DC, we also are the official and legally recognized bargaining unit for Fringe Benefits. As such we bargain together to ally the power of all in advancing and protecting our Retirement, Health Care, and work rules issues that bridge all Unions. Only with the collective strength of all can we maintain not only a seat at the bargaining table, but a partnership to deal with funding, contracts, fees and legalities affecting our retirement and healthcare and work rules. The CCU is active in Local politics and legislative advocacy and statewide politics and legislation including the County and the Budget. Local 1014 weighs in and helps other unions with their issues and they ally and support us on ours. This becomes critical when dealing mainly with retirement and healthcare benefits.
This year, the budgets are strained at the State and the County, and the cost of healthcare including medical, dental, and vision, is skyrocketing with inflation. Our job is to work with the County BOS and meet with the medical carriers to negotiate rates for the care and benefits we provide for our members. Keeping these costs down is a hard task involving negations and leveraging job actions and political power to settle things so that the plans can stay in business and the members have medical coverage. We negotiate with Kaiser, the Union Plans, Cigna, Anthem, Delta and more to set the contracts that ultimately determine the cost of all of our plans.
We are meeting regarding rates and with the County on the opposite sides of the table regarding premiums and monies applied to health care for our active duty and retiree members. The state has impacted our retirement systems, and the County CEO and HR folks are looking to press us on similar models for healthcare by establishing a new tier where new hires pay for some portion of their healthcare. We have long protected and worked to get from the County medical contributions that cover the premium and, in most cases, provided money in the pocket that could be applied to insurance. Much like post-PEPRA employees who have health insurance needs for spouses or dependents, the use of retiree medical trusts and tax-free tools to provide the amounts needed for premiums in retirement, we are looking at all tools to deal with this issue to protect best and advantage our members, and all members in the County Unions.
Part of what we do is meet regularly with our County CEO and our County BOS to discuss strategies and dynamics involving the costing out of plan expense, rates of return, benefit issues, and more so where we can collaborate on deal points that put the workers first. We joined together as Unions at our CCU meeting and met with Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Hilda Solis. Kathryn Barger is a Republican from the North and East, and Hilda Solis represents the center of the city and the East from DTLA and East LA out. Both supervisors brought their staff and worked with the Unions deliberately and meaningfully to talk about costs, priorities and pathways to solve funding problems for our healthcare.
The meetings are not just collaborative, but sometimes also difficult in passionately and professionally moving our agenda across the table. The work is difficult and sometimes painful, but long-term relationships pay off to keep at the work until we get solutions and or a deal. Both salary and benefit negotiations will likely be difficult at best. We anticipate more meetings with the Supervisors and the CEO as we partner to find paths to fund all we need to provide for our members.
Within the CCU, we have many committees and sub-committees dealing with tools and investments, and policies we negotiate with the County. The Committees are legally bipartisan with equal votes Labor and Management. President Gillotte was the Chair of CCU for the last fringe bargaining cycle and Co-Chair of the CCU, with Derek Hsiang of ALADS representing County Sheriffs Deputies. Together they guide the family of Unions to get consensus and solidarity on our collective and individual issues. Within that structure the Vice Presidents of Local 1014, Tony Carcioppolo and Kurt Kobler and Directors of Local 1014 when needed help vote and work to handle the agenda of items. Also, Director Matt Duhamell was appointed by President Gillotte and supported by the CCU Board of Directors to the Horizons Committee that deals with investments and strategies for funding 457 and related healthcare items. Matt is also rapidly becoming one of the only PEPRA Union Leaders with a voice to help craft a Retiree Medical Trust to provide for member and employer contributions in a tax-free manner to pay for premiums for medical, dental, and vision. Thanks to Matt for stepping up and joining the CCU Leadership team and helping Local 1014 move the future of benefits for our members. Along with Jason Green, our elected Board member for LACERA, Local 1014 is positioned well to help ensure that Public Safety remains a priority at the table.
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