Union Strength Flexes its Muscle Under Mayor Furey and New Council

The City Council is expected to formally approve this coming Tuesday a labor agreement with AFSCME and two smaller collective bargaining units representing library employees and crossing guards.  The agreement includes a $261,000 thousand payment for retroactive pay and a three month accelerated promotion on the back end of the deal at a cost of $185,000.  Former Mayor Scotto and Councilmember Sutherland criticized the agreement in a recent Daily Breeze article claiming it was an indicator that that the unions would be running the show in Torrance.

The payments in and of themselves are significant as the City is currently operating under a tight budget.  The much larger concern, however, is the precedent the payouts set for future labor negotiations.  These payouts represent something more than what other City Public Employee Unions received in recent agreements and those unions will almost certainly press for the same treatment in future negotiations.  Agreeing to the payouts essentially eliminates key leverage City officials have in labor negotiations.  Without the threat of delayed pay increases due to stalled labor negotiations, the unions can hold out on other contractual provisions until they get what they want.  This weakened negotiation position could force City officials to concede on contractual points that they might otherwise fight.

One of these lesser known contractual provisions included in the proposed agreement is called “Release time.”  This common provision in labor negotiated agreements is designed to allow employees paid time-off to participate in union activities such as meeting with management, holding negotiations, or attending union meetings and hearings on personnel matters.  The practice has been harshly criticized by some, including one legislator found here who claims that “receiving a taxpayer funded salary to be nothing more than a political operative for a union organization is inherently wrong.”   The co-author of Shadowbosses is quoted in the same article as stating that:

“Official [Release] time is a ruse for getting taxpayers to support union activities in the government workplace, including the lobbying of legislators for ever-more benefits. This effectively subsidizes unions so they can spend more dues income on political organizing. And it’s all done without taxpayers’ knowledge. It’s a shadowy practice that must be stopped.”

The proposed Torrance agreement takes the common “Release Time” provision a step further by allowing the Union President “paid release time of two days per week [Tuesday and Wednesday] to conduct Union activities.”  This paid release time is in addition to the release time typically afforded by the Clause.  The provision also allows the Union President to receive overtime pay for conducting City business during scheduled release time days.

This provision was included not only in the AFSCME agreement, but in that with the Torrance Library Employee Association (TLEA) as well, which represents 88 City library employees.  City officials have provided no details as to what union activities would require the TLEA Union President’s attention for a minimum of 16 hours per week.

Increased union strength under the new Council should not be unexpected to Torrance Residents.  Mayor Furey, and the rest of the recently elected Council (Councilmembers Ashcraft, Weideman, Goodrich, and Rizzo), relied heavily on Union support to win the election.  Councilmember Goodrich is currently employed by the California Association of Public Employees (CAPE) and Mayor Furey and Councilmember Rizzo are drawing pensions as former public employees.  Rizzo retired from the Torrance Police Officer Association.  His estimated pension is listed publically here at an amount of nearly $167,000 per year.