City Blue-Collar Workers Are Offered Pledge of No Layoffs in Lieu of Raises

The Los Angeles City Council has voted to offer the city’s trash haulers, janitors, jailers and other blue-collar workers no raise over the next two years, but a guarantee that they will not be laid off in favor of private contractors.

The 6,500 members of Local 347 of the Service Employees International Union will begin voting by mail this week on whether to ratify the contract offer.

Union General Manager David Trowbridge said Tuesday that the prospect of no raise has become less palatable since Mayor Richard Riordan said police officers would be offered a pay increase.

But Trowbridge said the promise of job security may be more important to union members because Riordan announced plans to consider hiring private firms to provide trash collection and other services.

“Job protection has been our rallying cry since last summer,” when Riordan was elected, Trowbridge said. “How much you get paid isn’t important if you don’t have a job.”

The proposed pact would cover nearly two years retroactively and run through July 1, 1996. It would give the blue-collar workers another chance to negotiate a raise next summer but makes no promises of higher pay.