When Miami-Dade Commissioner Juan “El Zorro” Zapata foiled the mayor’s plans and voted to override his veto of a majority decision of the restoration of employees’ pay, he didn’t just end a prolonged impasse with 11 of the county unions. In one moment, the arguably low-key commissioner, whose office sends out fewer self-promotional press releases […]
Miami-Dade Commissioner Juan Zapata had the “leader moment” Ladra hoped for and became the hero for public employees Tuesday — and a hero for democracy everywhere. But that may not have been his intention when Zapata became the swing vote that gave the county commission the super majority it needed to override Mayor Carlos “Not […]
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez finally issued the veto Friday that he promised of the 8-5 commission decision to return some money the county has been taking away from employees for five years. That was no surprise. What may have raised some eyebrows is a memo he wrote a day earlier telling Miami-Dade Police Director J. […]
In another sign that it can be done, that the so-called healthcare “emergency” isn’t real, Jackson Health System has reached a possible compromise agreement with the public hospital’s two labor unions to phase out the famous and forced 5% “group healthcare” contribution that has been the cause of so much hand-wringing at County Hall. Watch […]
There has been much misinformation and downright hysteria about the 5% “group health care contribution” that Miami-Dade employees want to stop giving as per their contract. But very little in the way of basic truth. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Not So Golden Boy” Gimenez doesn’t want us to understand the whole picture. That’s why he goes […]
Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez was painted as a liar last week at the impasse hearing. And commissioners who are likely to revisit this matter after he vetoes their 8-5 decision last week to restore the employee’s 5 % group healthcare contribution — not a pay raise, as he’s been cynically calling it on Spanish-language […]
Even under the threat of another inevitable veto, Miami-Dade Commissioners voted 8-5 Thursday to restore a 5% contribution for a group health care “trust fund” that county employees have been giving back to the county since 2009 and led to an impasse between the administration and 11 of the county’s labor unions. They passed Commissioner […]
Mayor Carlos Gimenez‘s alleged solution to the impasse with employee unions who want a the promised return of a 5% group healthcare contribution they’ve been giving since 2009 is to only give it back if he can whack their salaries — which is what the county obviously wanted in the first place. He calls that […]
On the same day, in the same meeting, in the same room where the Miami-Dade Commission voted Tuesday to keep taking 5% from 25,000 or so county employees contributing to a group healthcare subsidy fund that they were promised would end in January, the county gave $3 million away to NCL Cruise Lines. All while Miami-Dade Mayor […]
Three months ago, when the Miami-Dade Commission restored a 5% concession to the county airport and sanitation employees, Chairwoman Rebeca Sosa repeatedly said that she could not give to one group and not the others when their time came. She even used the analogy of her children, saying she couldn’t give one milk and deny […]