San Jose Reaches Deal with 8 Unions on Measure B Settlement

San Jose officials announced Friday that the city has come to a tentative agreement with eight of its nine unions on a Measure B settlement, representing 99 percent of its non-sworn workforce.

“I am extremely pleased that we’ve reached an agreement that secures nearly $3 billion in long-term savings and will help us restore city services and our workforce in a fiscally-sustainable manner,” Mayor Sam Liccardo said in a statement. “I’d like to extend my deepest gratitude to our city’s and our employees’ bargaining teams for spending countless hours to reach a compromise that benefits both San Jose taxpayers and our dedicated public servants. This agreement will help us turn the page on the challenges of the past and build a foundation for future collaboration.”

Union memberships must ratify the agreement, which also needs to be signed off by the City Council. The framework of the settlement is similar to the deal reached this summer with police and firefighter unions, according to city officials.

Yolanda Cruz, president of the city’s largest union, AFSCME Local 101, called the agreement “fair for all parties.” She commended the work of City Manager Norberto Dueñas, who also suggested that the focus can now turn to restoring city services that were cut in recent years.

The city will proceed with a quo warranto process through the courts before going back to voters in November 2016 with a ballot measure that supersedes Measure B, which was passed in June 2012.

UPDATE Dec. 17, 2015: The city and the Association of Building, Mechanical and Electrical Inspectors (AMBEI) came to a pension reform settlement agreement. All of the city’s unions are now on board.

16 Comments

  1. This is long over due…now the question is will City Council Approve? Probably. Will it be unanimous in its approval? I doubt it.

    Why do I doubt it? Because , if memory serves… One council member voted against the global settlement the City reached with Police and Fire.

    Why am I relying on memory and not hard fact? Well the City Council Web archives haven’t updated with the minutes from Council and subcommittee meetings going back to July 2015.

    I guess I could watch the video of the meeting but or portion dealing with B but I rally know the answer and identity and outcome.

    I guess a valid question at this point is done take that council member seriously when he submits a memo proposing to spend the money the City is saving with the department being roughly 300 officers under its current budget authorized strength on Contracts to suplement the Police with CHP and Sheriff’s deputies? Oh , and he only wants to contract out until the police department can get back to 1109 officers.

    That council member is probably one of the biggest 2 faced phonies to ever!

    Voted For B, Voted against the fix for B with the police and now wants to supplement the police with contract agencies because of the staffing crisis he helped to create (and was warned time and time again of the probable out come of his effort).

    What an arrogant piece of ….. of…. of… work!

  2. What a giant TOOL! Liccardo you endorsed and backed this entire Measure B the day it was hatched… Now you want to thank everyone for coming to an agreement. This place will not recover for years thanks to your reckless antics…

    • Remember that Liccardo’s first fix (to avoid the ballot box) was to ” fire everyone on Friday and hire them back on Monday” under a new pension plan…

      Who can take hI’m seriously? I guess the simpletons who endorsed and elected him… you know who you are.

  3. Worth creating a screen name just to say, “We told you so”.
    Suck it San Jose. You’re getting everything you deserve. All Chuck Reed’s sheep can wallow in the sh*t hole they created.

    • I changed my name but the prudish and unsophisticated weekend Censor dumped my comment.

      YouTube search “Ricky’s I told you so moment” for the content of the deleted post.

  4. Ruck Chuck Feed… and Lie-car-doh, who was a 100% cheerleader of Measure B. Constant, Madison, Herrera and Pierluigi are least as ignorant and culpable… but far less intelligent and educated, so they’re more like sheep following the orders of Rufas the herder.

  5. All this could have been achieved without the divisive ballot measure, just like neighboring cities. Without the legal costs, without the morale issues. Does anyone get this or care? And FYI the unions also bear some responsibility too by not being willing to come to the table earlier. All in all a sad chapter in San Jose’s history of a once great city to work for.

    • Sorry Betty. The unions offered the City far greater concessions than what we just received in the settlement. The former Mayor wouldn’t listen to the union proposals. He was stuck in his mindset, not the unions.

  6. > All this could have been achieved without the divisive ballot measure, just like neighboring cities.

    I doubt this.

    The San Jose police “crisis” is a product of radical politics, The ethos of radical politics is to force a crisis and “bring it all down.” (Replay the video tape of the 1960’s).

    Squishy progressive politicians like Liccardo just play into the hands of the radicals by making concessions.

    Radicals regard concessions made by their enemies as signs or weakness which just validates the radical strategy.

    “Successful behavior is repeated”.

    Crises like this are never resolved. The key actors just die of old age.

  7. This City deserves this and more. Corrupt and self minded politicians pushed an illegal ballot measure , even though the proposal offered by city workers would have given them a much larger savings than those realized. Reed ,Liccardo,constant,hererra,Oliverio, and lets not forget Reeds favorite hand puppet , Maddie , brought this city to its knees with their inability to lead and negotiate . its funny that Liccardo and the rest of these chowderheads are praising everyone involved for “coming together ” , to solve a problem that didn’t have to be and that they created.The biggest losers in this charade , have been the residents of San Jose. Most city departments are still understaffed and cannot fill their vacancies. San Jose went from ” the place to be” , to “the place to be from “.

    • The problem is UNSOLVABLE!

      The “Labor vs. Management” model simply is unworkable for a government employer in a society that professes to be “democratic” and “ensure equal protection.under the law”.

      Special interest groups “negotiating” government privileges for themselves that are NOT available to citizens at large is NOT “equal protection”.

      Franklin D. Roosevelt understood this. He was opposed to public employee unions.

      Either decertify public employee unions or allow ALL voters to vote in union elections.

      The people at large have council members to represent their interests to government. Government employees have council members AND union officials to represent their interests.

      “Two bites at the apple”.

      It’s unfair. It’s unsolvable.

      • Your position doesn’t even make sense, and as we have seen the “people at large” do have the Council, the mayor and the many special interest groups behind them (Chamber of Commerce, SJ Merc, et al) and the hired legal help paid for by citizens (Myers Nave and a host of other firms) that authored, pushed for and passed the illegal Measure B.

        The problem was unsolvable because irrational minds were driving the process and making costly illegal decisions, and you now blame on public employees that fought back to protect their rights.

        “…allow voters to vote in union elections”. This does not make any sense at all, which perfectly explains those that follow Reed, and got this entire City into the crap hole it’s been in the last 8 years.

        • > and you now blame on public employees that fought back to protect their rights.

          THEIR rights?

          Do public employees have MORE rights than other people?

          Exactly the point I’m making.

          At least we agree on something.

  8. So the City and the Unions spent literally millions on legal fees to defend a measure which was in most part Unconstitutional. Now as the Attorney’s for both side have cleaned their pockets all parties are going to return to their original positions before Measure B and move forward on new Security Guard Quality Cops and Firefighters who are afraid of heights and latters and phobias regarding fire. They will be paid so poorly as to require you to forget they are there. That doesn’t mean there will not be State Indictments for the Base Ball Stadium San Jose Redevelopment embezzlement for stadium land and taxpayer funds. That’s coming folks.

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