The Cupertino Courier

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City approves contracts with employee unions

By Cody Kraatz

The Cupertino City Council on April 17 unanimously approved three-year tentative labor agreements with two city employee groups, effective July 1.

Local No. 3 of the Operating Engineers Union represents 48 public works maintenance employees, and the Cupertino City Employees Association represents 53 clerical, technical and professional employees.

Negotiations took about three months, a typical amount of time, according to Sandy Abe, the city's human resources director.

"It's always a challenging negotiation process coming up with a package that is agreeable. I wouldn't say it was more challenging than usual," said Abe, who is not part of either employee group.

The agreement includes a 4 percent raise this year and 3.5 percent raises in 2008 and 2009, effective July 1 of each year.

Employees agreed to pay 2 percent of their salary for a more generous retirement benefits plan through the California Public Employees' Retirement System that should be effective by late December, according to the labor contracts.

The new plan would pay employees 2.7 percent of their salary, rather than the current 2 percent, for each year they worked for the city, after they are eligible to retire at age 55.

"This is much more competitive for recruitment and retention purposes," said Abe, adding that many neighboring cities such as Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and Palo Alto have the 2.7 percent retirement plan.

"We were able to get the employees, through the negotiations, to share the cost."

Also, the city will save money by closing most facilities during the Christmas and New Year holiday period, when employees can use their vacation time or take leave without pay.

Another 42 employees are either unrepresented management or work with confidential information and were not part of the same negotiations. Their contracts include similar terms, according to Abe.

The city and employee groups will reopen negotiations only if legislation is passed that would lower retiree medical insurance costs.