San Jose Avoids Layoffs for Now

Sometimes when the axe comes there is simply nothing that can be done about it. In other cases some willingness to bend can help to keep people in their jobs. Today, that was the case for members of the San Jose police force. Their union was recently willing to make some tentative concessions in order to keep more officers on the street, keeping the people safe and biding their time for an economic increase.

In case you were wondering these are no small concessions that the police union has made in order to keep officers in their jobs. They have agreed to allow the city to continue the current pay cuts, about 10% in total, for the next year and a half at minimum.

If the agreement, which is in its tentative stages, become permanent it is expected to put and end to an argument between the city leaders and the union. The disagreement, which was about the best way that the city could shore up a double digit budget gap that would have been created, if the salary cuts had not remained in place. The concession that the union is making will keep the ugly alterative of layoffs off of the negotiation table, or at least they hope so.

“We expect that it will prevent layoffs of police officers next year,”  Jim Unland, president of the San Jose Police Officers’ Association told a reporter for the Mercury News this week.  Had the agreement not been reached the discussions may have gone into arbitration.

Of course, the agreement is not so just because the union leaders have agreed to it. These terms must be voted on by the members of the union. If they choose to ratify it then the agreement will go to the City Council for their approval. If and only if both groups agree to the new contract will it actually go into place and the jobs cuts can be avoided. The members of the City Council will not even consider the matter until some time in the month of January.

At this point there is little reason to believe that the members of the City Council will not agree to the terms, as they are near identical to last years agreement and save the city desperately needed money. Last year the police department, along with all of the other city workers, took a 10% pay cut in order to close a budget deficit of about a $115 million.  In the case of the rest of the workers the rest of the workers pay cut renewal was automatic, and will remain that way until the city is in a better fiscal situation. In the case of the police their union only approved the pay cuts for one year.

If the police had not agreed to the pay cuts the city would have needed to find $25 million more to increase the pay.  The workers who have had their pay cut indefinitely may be in for a long wait. This is the city’s 10^th years running at a budget deficit.