Mayor Jean Quan hoping new pact paves the way for labor peace. Chronicle photo by Paul ChinnOakland has reached a tentative agreement with two of its largest unions — paving the way to election-year labor peace, but also potentially costing the city big time down the road.
The deal, which the City Council tentatively approved in closed session Thursday, gives 3,500 city workers their first raises in six years.
It also has none of the pension and health care cost concessions that Mayor Jean Quan had initially asked for from both the Service Employees International Union and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers.
The new contract, which gives workers a 2 percent raise this month and a 1 percent raise next year, was worked out between the unions and Deputy Mayor (and state Senate candidate) Sandre Swanson. It followed a one-day strike last month by city workers whose wages were cut significantly by unpaid furloughs in recent years.
No one will talk about the deal publicly, because the fine points are still being worked out behind closed doors.
City Hall sources, however, tell us that while Oakland will be able to afford the package over the next two years, City Administrator Deanna Santana has concluded it could put the city on the hook for tens of millions of dollars in increased pension and health care costs three to five years down the line.
Sources tell us the only “no” vote in closed session was cast by Councilwoman Libby Schaaf.
Those in the know cite three reasons for the mayor’s and council’s approval of the package: past worker sacrifices, the unwillingness of the unions to agree to change the health care package, and politics.
Next year is an election year in Oakland, with Quan bidding for a second term and four council seats up for grabs — and everyone wants labor’s love.
For more M&R, including Gov. Jerry Brown’s latest fundraising haul and the odd bedfellows showing up at the annual camp-out at the Bohemian Grove, read here.
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