☆ Waite: To break SJ City/Labor impasse, consider 18-month, instead of 3-year, contracts
Contract negotiations hit an impasse. Much posturing from Labor ensues. Strike threats loom. Pat Waite, chief of Citizens for Responsibility, offers a Third Way to call a halt to the Kabuki-like maneuvering: shorter contracts. An Opp Now exclusive.
Employee unions and the City of San Jose have reached an impasse in negotiations for new three-year contracts. The unions are asking for increases of 7%, 6%, and 5% for the three years, while City management has offered 5%, 4%, and 3%.
The current economic climate, while not unique for those of us who lived through the stagflation of the late 1970s and early 1980s, is something unseen in our country since then. Overaggressive pandemic pump-priming by the federal government along with supply chain disruptions increased inflation significantly, a jump that is proving difficult to rein in. But it would be imprudent for the City to agree to contract demands that assume the continued ineffectuality of Federal Bank monetary policy.
Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility believes the two sides should break from the traditional three-year contract horizon. We suggest that they consider an 18-month contract with a 6% increase. This would provide them time to assess the longer-term efficacy of federal monetary policy, while at the same time providing our hardworking City employees a reasonable increase given the current economic environment.
For more on CFR, visit their website here.
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