CAPE members’ Contract Ratification Ballots were counted last week by the election vendor and the results say it all – voting members from all CAPE Los Angeles County Bargaining Units approved the Tentative
Agreements (TAs) achieved last year by CAPE’s Bargaining Teams by a whopping 96% combined majority.
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Meanwhile, CAPE representatives and County officials have completed their review and writing of the new language for all of the Units’ Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) to ensure each accurately reflects what was achieved by the CAPE Teams during the contract negotiations last year. We are pleased to report that the new CAPE MOUs are scheduled for formal approval by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, January 26th. Once approved, the County will implement the first 3% pay raise for CAPE members as soon as administratively possible.
The highlight of the new MOUs is a 10% total cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) package for all CAPE Bargaining Unit members. The 10% will be paid to employees within 2 years, 7 months of the start of the new contracts according to the following schedule – 3% retroactive to 10/1/2015, 3% on 10/1/2016, 2% on 10/1/2017, and 2% on 4/1/2018.
In addition to the pay increases, the new MOUs include a salary inequity re-opener in 2016 for Professional Engineers and Engineering Technicians who presented inequities during 2015 bargaining, new language to help CAPE combat DPW’s overuse and misuse of private contract employees to perform CAPE members’ work, new safety equipment provisions for DPW and Regional Planning employees, and new language to potentially improve recruitment and retention of new Appraisers and create a new SBE audit-qualified bonus for appraisal staff.