L.A. Approves Pay Raises to Airport Police, Firefighters

LOS ANGELES, CA — The City Council approved a labor contract Tuesday with the union representing airport police and firefighters that gives raises and higher starting salaries to the officers, union officials said.

Under the two-year agreement, police officers and firefighters who work at Los Angeles International Airport, L.A./Ontario International Airport and Van Nuys Airport will receive the same starting pay as port police and Los Angeles Police Department officers, Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Association union officials said.

The agreement also calls for airport police and firefighter wages to go up by 6.7 percent starting Sunday, with subsequent 2 percent increases scheduled for July 9, 2017 and Jan. 7, 2018.

The new agreement ends a six-year-long period in which the union's members have been working without a "mutually agreed upon" contract, according to union officials. They said they have been demanding that airport management provide their 420 members with comparable pay to that of other police officers and firefighters.

Marshall McClain, the union's president, says that while the new pact brings airport police compensation closer to that of other officers working for city agencies, it still falls short on retirement benefits.

"The airport still has to do right by our members and provide us with a comparable retirement equal to the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles Harbor Police," McClain said. "Our folks currently have to work about 12 more years than other police agencies to achieve the same retirement percentage. That's 12 more years of putting our lives on the line, 12 more years breathing in bad carcinogens at the airport and risking injury."

Sworn airport police and firefighters are not paid out of the city's coffers, but rather by the Los Angeles World Airport, a city agency operated using revenue generated through airport activity.

— City News Service