Caroline Petrow-Cohen
Fri, March 15, 2024
The front of the headquarters of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in downtown Los Angeles. (Associated Press)
Some L.A. city employees are "double dipping" by retiring and then starting a new job at the Department of Water and Power while collecting a pension for the first job, according to a union leader.
Gus Corona, head of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18, which represents nearly all DWP workers, said the double dipping harms the city's finances and the DWP's retirement plan, and that it came about in violation of the union bargaining process.
In a cease-and-desist letter to City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto on March 11, Corona called the situation "DROP on steroids" — a reference to a police and firefighter program that allows participants to collect their salaries and pensions simultaneously for the last five years of their careers.
Read more: Veteran L.A. cops and firefighters can work one shift, then collect double pay for years
Corona wrote that his union “will not accept this or any threat to the city’s financial health, the financial health of DWP employees’ retirement plans or to the City’s obligation to bargain in good faith.”
The city attorney's office has "unilaterally changed its interpretation" of the city charter, Corona wrote, allowing workers to double dip despite a ban against employees in the Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System taking another paid job with the city.
So far, Corona said in an interview, four to six city employees have retired from a LACERS position, then taken a new salaried position with DWP, which has its own pension system.
But in his cease-and-desist letter, he predicted "cascading effects," with employees rushing to take advantage and city taxpayers footing the bill.
"It would spark a flood of retirements from LACERS-covered positions, exacerbating the already extreme exodus of expert and experienced employees from key positions," Corona wrote.
City employees who transfer from a LACERS position to DWP would also be able to collect a DWP pension when they retire, Corona said.
A representative for Service Employees International Union 721, a union that represents civilian city employees who are covered by LACERS, declined to comment on the cease-and-desist letter.
The city attorney’s office said it is not unlawful to retire from a LACERS position and begin a DWP position, noting that the reverse has long been permitted.
“Under the Charter, the hard-working employees of the Department of Water and Power have, for more than 80 years, been able to retire, collect a pension, and then seek further employment with the City in LACERS-covered positions. This decades-old practice is not unlawful,” the city attorney’s office said in a statement.
“Just as DWP retirees have done for decades in other City positions, LACERS retirees can play a key role by bringing their expertise to positions with DWP,” the statement said.
Some of the dispute between the IBEW Local 18 and the city attorney's office boils down to whether the DWP is included in the city charter's prohibition against taking another city job after retirement.
In his cease-and-desist letter, Corona argued that a "city" job includes positions with the DWP.
IBEW Local 18 is also filing an unfair practices charge with the Los Angeles Employee Relations Board for the city's alleged failure to notify and "meet and confer" with the union about its revised interpretation of the charter.
The city attorney’s office said it plans to respond to Corona's letter in writing.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
GM UAW members frustrated by cap on 1st phase of $50K buyout, demand Fain take action
Jamie L. LaReau, Phoebe Wall Howard and Eric D. Lawrence, Detroit Free Press
Updated Fri, March 15, 2024
At 5 a.m. Thursday nearly 50 UAW Local 14 members who work at General Motors' Toledo Propulsion Systems plant eagerly gathered to learn the long-awaited details of how the automaker's special attrition retirement program would work — and who could take advantage of it.
The program, negotiated last fall during the settlement of the UAW strike against the Detroit Three automakers, will pay a pretax lump sum of $50,000 to eligible workers who retire. GM agreed to offer buyout programs during the 4½-year UAW contract, but the timing of those programs and other details still needed to be negotiated.
Tom Ruddy was among those waiting. At 62, Ruddy wanted to retire two months ago after 38 years on the job. But he held off to see whether he could participate in the first phase of the buyout program.
Tom Ruddy, 62, is approaching his 38th year at General Motors' Toledo Propulsion Systems plant and is ready to retire, but is waiting on GM to determine the dates and details of a special attrition retirement program that will pay a pretax lump sum of $50,000.
"I felt total disappointment," Ruddy told the Free Press after he learned he likely won't be eligible now. "I am No. 294 on the seniority list. They came out with this (program) and only 2% of us can go. That is only 26 people at our plant. So all of us are just shocked. They rolled it out across all the GM plants and said, 'Only 2% per plant. That is what you get, no more.' "
The news that GM and the UAW International leaders agreed to 2% at each of GM's U.S. plants in this first phase of the program has left some members and local union leaders frustrated over the low number, and even worse, that the UAW agreed to it. Some are now demanding UAW President Shawn Fain step in and change it.
The 2% figure means about 900 of the approximately 46,000 union members across GM get the buyout in this first program phase. The UAW says about 7,800 GM hourly workers are eligible for retirement at the moment.
At Toledo Propulsion there are about 1,350 hourly employees and about 200 of them want to retire now, but UAW Local 14 President Tony Totty said he expects about 24 production and 3 skilled trades workers will be allowed under the program at this time. The rest will either have to wait for the next offering, whenever that might occur during the life of the contract, or retire without the extra cash.
“That meeting was rough and our members were mad and they have every right to be,” Totty told the Free Press after the meeting with GM.
'Leave a voicemail' for Fain and Booth
The UAW's agreement with GM will allow for all of the eligible employees who want to retire and get the buyout to do so during the life of the contract, just not in this first phase, and there's no news about the next opportunity.
“I am gone. I am done playing their game," Ruddy said. "I’ve worked here 38 years, I’ve had a great work record, I’ve been a valued employee at this place and loved working here and this is a sour end to it."
There were seven informational meetings held Thursday at Toledo Propulsion that drew about 250 members in total, Totty said. He and his members are so angry about the 2% cap in this first phase, that on Friday the Local 14 sent out a letter via text message to its 1,350 members — with plans to post it widely across social media later for all union members — urging them to call the UAW's Solidarity House in Detroit and "leave a voicemail" of protest to Fain and UAW Vice President for the GM Department Mike Booth over their agreement to the 2% cap in the first phase.
The letter, which is signed by Totty and Local 14 Shop Chairman Jeff King, states the two have heard the "frustration and dissatisfaction" from members over the 2% cap and that GM and the UAW are "not being fair."
Tony Totty, president of UAW Local 14 which represents the workforce at General Motors Toledo Propulsion Systems plant, wants to know the details of GM’s special attrition retirement program because he estimates about 200 of the local union’s membership there would like to retire
"Ford and Stellantis both have uncapped (buyout programs) for their 2023 agreements," the letter states.
During the strike, "we were told that members were the highest authority. Please use that authority to get fairness in this agreement," the letter states.
But as the Free Press reported last month, Booth wrote in a letter to membership warning them that not all who want to retire and get the buyout would be able to do so in the first phase. A GM spokesperson would not elaborate on why buyouts are being so limited in the first phase.
On Friday, the UAW emailed a statement from Booth to the Free Press. It said there are 7,800 UAW members at GM who are eligible to retire and that number is expected to nearly double over the life of the agreement.
“Every UAW member at GM who is eligible to retire during the life of this agreement will be provided the opportunity to retire and receive the $50,000 (buyout),” Booth said in the statement. “GM has the highest number of retirement eligible employees of the Big Three. It is not possible for thousands of workers to retire all at once and for the plants to keep running. So me and my staff have been negotiating for UAW members to be able to retire in phases.”
He said GM has agreed to have “as many phases as needed” to make sure that everyone who is eligible to retire and wants to receive the $50,000 bonus can do so.
“In this first phase, I agreed with the company to limit the number who can retire immediately to 2% of the total population of the workforce at a plant,” Booth said. “That means that 900 UAW members across all of GM will be eligible to retire immediately and receive the $50,000. But that’s just the first group. This is NOT the total number or anywhere close to the final number of those who will receive the (buyout).”
GM spokeswoman Genna Young declined to discuss details of the program with the Free Press. She emailed a statement saying the buyout program will be implemented in distinct phases, "and all interested eligible employees will have the opportunity to receive a (buyout) during the life of this agreement. We have started communications for the initial phase to ensure that eligible employees have the information they need. We are working to carry out fully the commitments we made under the national agreement."
People can retire, just not clear when for some
The UAW contract with GM states that prior to each of the times it will offer the buyout program, GM and the union will agree on the "timing, size, and scope of the offering." It is that caveat that has many union members frustrated that they did not get more clarity around what that would mean and that they didn't demand more answers before accepting the deal.
General Motors Wentzville Assembly employees at work Friday, Dec. 13, 2019, at the plant in Wentzville, Missouri.
"For us to not read that might be on our part, but (GM contract) says ‘size and scope to be mutually agreed upon’ so that means our union agreed to 2%," Ruddy said. "The way I understood it was, if 300 people wanted to go at the first of the year, they had to let 300 people go."
A GM hourly employee at a parts plant told the Free Press only two people in the plant will get to take the buyout in this first phase, "Needless to say, there are a lot of upset people at my facility, including me. I have 39 years seniority." The employee declined to be named for fear of retribution for speaking out publicly.
How it will work
According to interviews with several union locals' leaders and members and the documents the UAW sent to its members, here is how the GM program will work:
Enrollment for the first phase of the program starts March 23 and runs through May 6, documents said. The documents said 2% at each plant are eligible, with an equal split coming from production workers and skilled trades.
So, for example, if a facility has 1,000 union member employees and 900 of them are production workers and 100 are skilled trades, 2% of each group can take the buyout. So that would be 18 production people and two skilled trades people for a total of 20 people, or 2% of the total plant population. Totty said it is his understanding that if that facility only has, say, one skilled trades person who signs up for the program and is eligible for the buyout, then the other slot will go to a skilled trades person at a different facility.
The 2% cap this time around could result in a person with 30 years seniority at a large plant getting the buyout and a person with 40 years at a different, smaller plant, having to wait until the next phase or retire without the buyout.
Ford and Stellantis deals
The application window for the $50,000 buyout program at Ford opened up in January and ran through March 1. Ford negotiated it directly with the UAW, said Ford spokeswoman Jessica Enoch. At Ford, when a UAW member becomes eligible for retirement based on age or years of service, the retirement day would be on the first day of the following month, Enoch told the Detroit Free Press. So, for example, if someone has a working anniversary of April 15, they begin retirement on May 1.
There is no cap on the number of people who may apply to retire, she said. There are no waves of implementation, Enoch said. She declined to provide any retiree counts related to current or future buyouts as part of the UAW contract. Enoch said that 2024 is the only buyout planned for these workers during this union contract.
Striking Ford Motor Company employees represented by the UAW and Local 900 picket on the sidewalk across the entrance to Gate 9 at the Michigan Assembly in Wayne blocking independent truck drivers from getting into the plant on Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. A member of the Teamsters told the truckers that the strikers would be here all day and that it would be impossible for them to pull in for their deliveries or pickups.More
The only reason a retirement date wouldn’t take effect immediately, as outlined in the program specifics, is if there’s an operational need to retain employees longer and those are limited circumstances, Enoch said.
Last month, the Free Press reported the UAW-represented employees at Stellantis began receiving buyout offers and eligible employees have until Dec. 31 to accept the offer. Another lump sum deal will be offered in 2026.
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Stellantis spokeswoman Jodi Tinson told the Free Press that the 2024 Incentive Plan for Retirement for UAW-represented members first went out to eligible employees over the Christmas holiday and any employee who meets the eligibility criteria can accept.
The exact date for the $50,000 payment is contingent on the employee separating on a date approved by management and is based on operational needs, Tinson said. That means an employee's separation date may be extended.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: GM UAW members frustrated over new details of $50K buyout program
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