Dear PECG Member,
PECG negotiates the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) or labor contract on behalf of all employees in Bargaining Unit 9, the Professional Engineer Unit, which includes Engineers and related professionals in state service. This current contract was negotiated in 2003 with the Department of Personnel Administration (DPA), representing the Governor. It will terminate on July 2, 2008. While the parties may negotiate amendments or additions to the MOU along the way, formal bargaining for a new contract will begin in the spring of 2008. The contract contains numerous improvements despite the serious budget crisis and economic stagnation during the time it was negotiated. It includes, for a twelve-month period, suspension of the 5% pay raise; an offsetting suspension of the 5% employee payment to PERS; and accrual of one day per month of personal leave for twelve months to be taken as vacation or cash, at the option of the employee. It includes an 80%/80% formula for the state payment of health plan premiums, increasing to 85%/80% in 2006, which is a substantial improvement to the pre-existing system which required annual negotiations in order for the state to pay any increase in health plan premiums. The contract also includes language to require that savings from the temporary suspension of the 5% pay raise “shall first be applied to mitigate layoffs” in Unit 9. A Labor/Management Committee to examine contracting out from the standpoint of cost is another new provision. Guarantees that improvements in travel expense and several other items received by other units in the future will be applied to Unit 9 and the right of PECG to reopen up to four items are important features. While all of these items are significant improvements, the achievement of long-sought pay parity is the crown jewel of the new MOU. PECG and DPA agreed on a salary survey which demonstrates that Unit 9 employees are paid substantially less than their counterparts in California’s larger local agencies. This contract requires that those salary lags be eliminated in four steps, beginning in July 2005 and ending in July 2008. This will result in substantial pay increases for Unit 9 employees in the years ahead while reducing the “brain drain” of state-employed engineers and related professionals going to work for other public agencies at higher pay levels. Achieving pay parity is an historic achievement for PECG which we had sought for many years, but our work is far from done. Each year, the Legislature must appropriate funding for pay raises and other compensation increases. There will be those who seek to contract out our jobs to private firms, despite the higher cost to the taxpayers, rather than having public service workers continue to do the job. Thus, there are many opportunities, but as always, there are also many obstacles. The unity and support of the more than 9,500 PECG members have always been the key to PECG’s achievements and that will continue to be the case. The PECG Bargaining Team deeply appreciates this support and will continue to work hard in future years to resolve problems and achieve compensation and working condition improvements.

Sincerely,
Robert McNew
Vice President, Collective Bargaining