Mayor Gimenez more friendly to unions in face of recall

UPDATED: Three of Miami-Dade County’s 10 employee labor unions have reached tentative agreements with a suddenly friendlier administration that they now have to take before their members for approval.

Three more meetings are scheduled for today and it certainly looks like Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Cry Wolf” Gimenez is more eager these days to strike deals.

“We’re hoping to wrap it up today,” AFSCME Local 199 President Andy Madtes told Ladra Thursday morning, about an hour before the meeting begins at 10 a.m. “He told me yesterday that he didn’t want to fight any more. He wants to move on to the bigger issues of the county, which I think you’ll agree are many.”

Wait, what has caused this sudden sea change?

Could it be he wants to avoid the rush of employees crowding County Hall’s Commission Chambers and taking up hours of time at the budget meeting to whine about how badly they are treated? Could it be the fear of a recall effort spearheaded by retired firefighter Capt. Jack Garcia, whose son died in the Fourth of July boating accident and who begged the mayor to refund the fire boat, just in case? Could it be the power shown by employees and the different labor leaders who banded together in the last couple of months, and especially Tuesday, to boot an incumbent commissioner from the dais? Could be because that incumbent was one of his loyal pocket commissioners?

It could be a combination of any of or all of these things. But whatever it is, it looks like labor negotiations are at a 180 degree turn from where they were just eight weeks ago.

In recent days, the mayor and his administration have reached handshake agreements with the leaders of the aviation workers union, the solid waste union and the professional and supervisory workers. In it, the mayor drops his demand to extend benefit concessions made five years ago and scheduled to end next month. Yes, these are the same “snap backs” that Cry Wolf Gimenez said weeks ago would break us and cause massive layoffs.

But wait, there’s more! If the unions act now, the mayor also promises to commit to using additional property tax dollars that come in over projected ad valorem revenues to give employees a cost of living increase in 2017. Cost of living increase? Did that come out of the mayor’s mouth?

Yes, according to his statement Tuesday afternoon. He called it “an innovative way to responsibly manage Miami-Dade County’s future employee costs.” I could call it something else: Passing the buck. Mortgaging the future. Because it starts in 2017 — a year after his would-be re-election (if he is not recalled first).

In exchange, however, the unions must accept a redesigned healthcare plan that requires workers to choose between a cheaper plan with more restrictions or their existing plan but with higher premiums.

All three unions will put the agreement to their members, but they are expected to sign off on it.

“I very much appreciate the willingness of the leadership of both Local 1542 and Local 3292 to sit down with my administration in order to craft responsible solutions to our budgetary challenges,” a confident Gimenez says in a statement released Wednesday. “As I’ve stated on numerous occasions, I remain committed to ensuring that our government is more efficient and has sustainable operating costs.

Three more union leaders are expected to meet with the mayor or his staff today.

Of those, Madtes represents the largest number of employees and seemed very optimistic.

“We’re close,” Madtes told Ladra. “We’re hung up only on one issue. I want to make sure we get a 1 percent restored from concessions taken in 2011. Everybody else has gotten them back.”

Madtes had said earlier that he had concerns about the healthcare redesign because the administration has not provided him with enough details. But he told me Thursday morning that he had gotten some answers to his questions and felt that the issue had to be addressed proactively. Madtes spearheaded this healthcare reform and served on the healthcare task force tasked with finding savings and options on the table for what is a $445 million healthcare plan. He said one of the items being negotiated is that a healthcare sustainability committee continues to study ways to save, including investigating claims that he says are paid unchecked.

“We gotta get our arms around it now. Four years from now it is going to be too late,” Madtes said.

Madtes told Ladra that the mayor is “rethinking how he wants to deal with us,” and suggested that they have monthly meetings to address ongoing issues proactively.

Other employees and union leaders have expressed a concern about the healthcare options not going out to bid in a competitive market and question whether more savings could have been found. Madtes said that may be part of the final agreement: a commitment to go to bid for a new administrative plan manager.

PBA President John Rivera, who perhaps has the most contentious relationship with Gimenez — and has anyone else noticed that Latina woman taking a more high-profile role? — told Ladra Tuesday night that he had no meetings scheduled this week or next week with the mayor.

But even with them, there has been an olive branch: Gimenez acquiesced last week to the PBA request that he change their negotiator, Tyrone Williams — who had been the lead negotiator for the union for several years.

Gimenez told Rivera in the memo dated Aug. 19 that he did not believe there was a conflict of interest because Williams worked for the PBA 12 years ago. But, in the interest of moving negotiations forward, he designated Human Resources Director Arlene Cuellar as the lead negotiator.

See? Even the PBA gets some love.

And sources close to the mayor tell Ladra that there will not be any police officers fired after all, even though 110 remain on the chopping block right now.

But while these pending resolutions with the employees seem like a step in the right direction, it still seems like it came after a lot of needless hand-wringing and posturing. And maybe these abrupt turnarounds and sudden savings should make us all skeptical of the new song and dance.

After all, we don’t call him Cry Wolf Gimenez for nothing.

budget cuts, Carlos Gimenez, labor issues, Miami-Dade budget

Mayor Gimenez more friendly to unions in face of recall added by Ladra on August 28, 2014
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