Viewpoint: Con: Let workers keep their leverage

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• SLO police union asks state to overturn voter decision

  SLO police union asks state to overturn voter decision

  The San Luis Obispo Police Officers Association is seeking to upend voters’ recent decision to repeal binding arbitration as a means of negotiating wages and benefits by the city’s police and fire unions.

  In mid-October, the union filed a claim with the Public Employment Relations Board, a state agency that oversees the collective bargaining statutes with cities, alleging that San Luis Obispo used unfair labor practices by placing two measures on the ballot in August to repeal binding arbitration and negotiate reduced employee retirement benefits without seeking voter approval.

  In August, 70 percent of San Luis Obispo voters overwhelmingly passed two ballot measures overturning binding arbitration and allowing the city to create a two-tier pension plan without voter approval.

• SLO firefighters agree to give up pay raises for four years

  SLO firefighters agree to give up pay raises for four years

  San Luis Obispo firefighters will forgo pay increases for four years, pay their full pension contribution and begin a two-tier pension plan, according to a tentative agreement.

  The four-year contract, ratified Monday night by the San Luis Obispo Firefighters Association with “overwhelming” support, comes after months of closed-door negotiations between the city and the union.

  Erik Baskin, union president, said the agreement provides the one thing that members wanted: stability.

• SLO hit with complaint over 2011 binding arbitration ballot

  SLO hit with complaint over 2011 binding arbitration ballot

  The state agency that oversees the collective bargaining statutes with cities has filed an unfair practice complaint against the city of San Luis Obispo on behalf of its police union.

  The complaint is the latest tussle in a contentious battle between the San Luis Obispo Police Officers Association and the city following the City Council’s decision last year to seek voter approval to change the way the city bargains with its public safety employees. City Attorney Christine Dietrick said such complaints are rare, and it is the first filed against the city by the Public Employment Relations Board in at least the past seven years.

  “We view this as vindication of what we have said all along,” said the union’s attorney, Alison Berry Wilkinson. The union’s view is that the city violated its obligation to meet and confer even though the city says it did not.

• No raises for San Luis Obispo firefighters in new contract

  No raises for San Luis Obispo firefighters in new contract

  The San Luis Obispo City Council has narrowly ratified a four-year contract with the city’s firefighters union that foregoes raises, calls for employees to pay more toward their pensions and reduces retirement benefits for new hires.

  Council members voted 3-2 on the contract Tuesday night, with Councilwoman Kathy Smith and Councilman Dan Carpenter dissenting.

  It states that firefighters will not receive pay increases for four years, pay their full pension contribution and begin a two-tier pension plan.

• Survey shows support for sales tax extension in San Luis Obispo

  Survey shows support for sales tax extension in San Luis Obispo

  San Luis Obispo voters remain in favor of extending an added sales tax to pay for essential city services, according to a recent survey commissioned by the city, but support for it has declined over the past year.

  Of the local registered voters asked in a telephone survey, 59 percent said they would likely support renewing Measure Y, the city’s half-cent added sales tax approved by San Luis Obispo voters in 2006. In 2010, a similar survey found that 64 percent of registered voters polled said they would vote yes.

  “The prospects for renewing Measure Y are good, but definitive support for Measure Y has fallen since May 2010,” according to a report summarizing the survey.