A day after Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled a "watershed" labor agreement with city workers, he was quick to send a pointed message to other municipal unions.
"We will be asking all employees and departments to consider how they too can offer reasonable, responsible changes at this time of historic deficits," the mayor said Friday.
Though the pact tentatively struck with a coalition representing about 19,000 workers will help ease the city's budget crisis, its real import could be elsewhere: pressuring other city unions to follow, providing a multiplier effect and tens of millions of dollars in additional savings. Almost half the workforce paid via the city's general revenues remains outside the deal.
By praising labor for granting significant concessions, the mayor a former union organizer is opting for a less provocative approach than lawmakers who have faced off stridently with public-sector unions across the country. In return for their cooperation, members of the city union coalition covered by the agreement receive a significant benefit: a no-furlough guarantee for three years.
As a sign of his commitment, the mayor declared in a memo that the furloughs for covered employees some facing as many as 26 days off without pay would end as of next week, even before most workers vote on the tentative pact. But, he added, should the agreement not be ratified by April 20, "a requisite number of furlough days will be imposed."
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