LAPD Rank-and-File at an Impasse with Management over Salary

Originally posted at 8:21 a.m. Sept. 12, 2014. Edited with new details.

By ELIZABETH HSING-HUEI CHOU
City News Service

The union representing the Los Angeles Police Department rank-and-file today declared an impasse in salary negotiations with the city, but the mayor said the city is still at the table and awaiting a union counter-offer.

According to the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents about 9,900 officers, the union was taking the “highly unusual move of declaring an impasse in negotiations,” noting that “most labor impasses are called for by management or municipalities, not labor organizations.”

The union blamed the city for a “lack of good-faith bargaining.”

The city’s latest offer “is not only insulting -- it’s regressive,” LAPPL President Tyler Izen said at a news conference outside City Hall.

The proposal “actually is financially worse than the proposal our members turned down in July,” Izen said, referring to an offer that its membership rejected this summer.

“The chief often says cops count,” Izen said. “Apparently city leaders don’t agree.”

“Without significant steps toward parity, we will continue to lose highly trained and experienced officers in the department to agencies that have better pay, better working conditions and better benefits,” Izen said.

Izen said the city on Monday offered a proposal with two years of no raises, followed by a 2 percent increase in the third year. The city also asked them to contribute more in healthcare premiums.

He said the union wants a 9 percent raise over three years for its members, but did not say if union negotiators specifically requested it in their contract proposals to the city.

Izen said the union is petitioning to have a “neutral third party appointed by the Employee Relations Board” to “mediate the issues in dispute and preside over fact-finding to move us to a fair and equitable resolution for the officers who protect and serve all of Los Angeles.”

Mayor Eric Garcetti said he didn’t believe negotiations were at an impasse.

“We’re still at the table,” he told ABC7. “We have continued to present new proposals and I’m optimistic that some time we will be able to have a contract in place. So this (impasse declaration) really doesn’t reflect the feeling of the city, the city management. You know, it’s a strange thing to have an impasse declared from the other side, especially as we’re making new offers at the table.”

Mayoral spokesman Jeff Millman said the city has sent an offer to the union.

“We are awaiting their reply and hope they will come back to the table,” he said.

“The city has resolved two important issues -- restoring starting salaries for new officers and paying overtime,” he said. “We are ready to keep working with the union to reach a fair and fiscally responsible contract with police officers that our taxpayers can afford.”

Other city officials involved in the labor talks also disputed talks are at a standstill and urged labor officials to submit a counter offer.

“Proposals have been exchanged and in our opinion, it’s definitely premature to talk about impasse,” Council President Herb Wesson said.

Councilman Paul Krekorian, who chairs the Budget and Finance Committee, said he does not feel “anyone should be insulted by anything.”

“Let’s be adults about this. Respond to the offer,” Krekorian said. “If there’s something about the offer that you don’t like, then present a counter offer. But don’t walk away from the table and declare an impasse and pick up your toys and go home. The time now is to work together in order to reach a resolution on this matter.”

LAPD officers contend that despite making sacrifices in recent years to help the city’s budget, they continue to receive low pay and are subjected to an unfair disciplinary process, which has contributed to low morale. They also say salaries do not measure up to those in neighboring cities, resulting in many officers leaving to join better-paying law enforcement agencies.

The police union has been at the negotiating table with city officials since March.

Union members in July rejected a proposed one-year agreement that would have restored overtime pay to a budget of about $70 million and raised officers’ starting pay from $49,000 to $57,000. The proposed contract lacked pay raises for existing officers, which LAPPL President Tyler Izen called a “slap in the face” to his members and led to a draft agreement being voted down.

The contract with LAPD officers expired in June.

PHOTO Patch file photo.