The City decided to honor our contract because they were hoping we would volunteer our pay increase instead of offering up our Merit Pay. This is important to remember going forward because the City is still looking to the BCEA to forego a pay raise. While I am disappointed the City did not counter our proposal and reach an agreement, I'm not surprised by it. This can be brought up again in our new negotiations.

The City met with the BCEA on October 7th to kick off the negotiation process for 2009/2010. Enclosed in this mailing is a survey for our members to complete and give our team direction. There will be a membership meeting on October 27, 2009 and again on November 17, 2009 to discuss our direction for this year and I hope many of you will be able to attend. The specifics for these meetings are listed below.

Since our last newsletter, there have been some updates for the other Associations. The BMA made a concession proposal to the City when we did but ultimately they received their pay increases without giving up a concession. The IBEW also had pay increases due in their contract but ultimately took less in salary increases. The Police group is still in negotiations but all sides say that there are no salary increases for this year. And finally, the Executives and Z Group did not take their raises because City leadership felt it was inappropriate to do so and that it sent the wrong message to the community.

There remains the expectation from the City and Council that all bargaining groups will set up and help in some way. The consensus from our membership in the last few months has been to help if we can. Your Union will continue to work on finding ways to help along with fighting for the jobs of our members. The outlook for 2009/2010 is still not great. In our meeting last week, the City shared with us that Sales Tax revenue may come in 30% lower than projections. This means less money for operating costs and ultimately another round of cuts in the next budget. The City would have us believe that the depth of these cuts depends on what the Associations are willing to do in concessions. There is some validity to that but it does not mean that we cannot get some concessions back from the City in exchange for doing our share.

Please complete the enclosed survey (for active members only) and turn it in. They will be due the day of our next membership meeting. Also, please try to attend the meeting. Your Board greatly appreciates the input we get from the members and we want to assure you that your voice does count! The input we receive will get us going in a direction that we will share at the following meeting in November.

Postcards have gone out announcing the 2009 elections and the complete schedule is also enclosed is this mailing. Nominations are for all BCEA Executive Board positions plus one Trustee. If you are interested or want more details, contact the BCEA office and please remember to make arrangements to be nominated at the meeting on October 21st.

As always, if you have concerns you feel need to be addressed, please share them. We need to know.

Thank you again for taking the time to participate in your Union. Our collective success is directly related to how many people are involved in the process.

In Solidarity,

Darrin G. Borders
President, Burbank City Employees Association, AFSCME 3143, AFL-CIO