Carson Labor Negotiations Continue to Be Confusing

Confusion continued in negotiations with Carson’s largest municipal employee union after the union’s executive committee last week rescinded approval of a contract offer the City Council had not authorized.

While City Council members had criticized the city administration for failing to clear the proposed contract with the council, this week it was the council’s interpretation of a letter written by Local 809 of the American Federation of Federal, State and County Employees that caused the flap.

The letter advised the council of the union’s Saturday vote withdrawing approval for the agreement and said the union wished to work under the existing contract, which has another year to run and includes a 4% raise effective July 1. The letter also said the union was presenting a contract proposal to city officials.

Council’s Conclusion

The council discussed the letter Tuesday at a closed session, concluding that the union had decided to end efforts to renegotiate a wage package until the existing contract expires next year and had included the contract proposal only as an aid to next year’s negotiations, City Atty. Glenn Watson said.

Union President Nathan Williams, however, said the union did not want to pull out of negotiations but had intended to say it would work under the existing contract, which includes the 4% raise, while negotiations continue.

Before the interruption, negotiators were discussing a 4.3% cost-of-living raise, a 5% merit raise pool and an unspecified raise to make Carson employees’ wages comparable to those in similar cities.

Abandoning the negotiations would mean forgoing part of the cost-of-living raise and all merit raises and salary adjustments.

Williams said union members intend to present details of their proposal at the next council meeting July 26.

Watson, who said the negotiations had become “a shambles,” said he believed that council members will consider the union proposal seriously, despite the misunderstanding.