L.A. Airport Police Union Scores Victory in Battle for
Equal Pay for Equal Work as Council Approves New Contract
New contract puts pay for Airport Police on par with LAPD
LOS ANGELES, CA - After working without a mutually agreed upon contract for six year, today the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to approve a contract with the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Association (LAAPOA), the union that represents the sworn police officers and firefighters assigned to all three of Los Angeles' owned and operated airports, that will give Airport Police Officers a salary increase and provide base wage parity adjustments to ensure that Airport Police Officers are compensated competitively compared to their LAPD counterparts. (Link: https://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=16-0692)
Effective June 26, 2016 Airport Police Officers will receive a 6.7 percent salary increase with an additional 2 percent increase effective July 9, 2017 and January 7, 2018.
Additionally, the starting salary for Airport Police Officers will be increased to equal the starting salary for LAPD and Port Police officers. The bonus for canine handlers will be increased from 5.5% to 16.5% so that compensation remains competitive with LAPD counterparts.
The agreement will be in effect until June 23, 2018 and is the result of tedious mediations to achieve a global settlement agreement in an effort to resolve several open employee grievances, unfair labor practices and a pending lawsuit.
Union president Marshall McClain described the new contract as one in which officers had to concede certain objectives now in the hopes to continue moving forward, but says there's still much more work to be done.
"The Airport still has to do right by our members and provide us with a comparable retirement equal to the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles Harbor Police. Our folks currently have to work about 12 more years than other police agencies to achieve the same retirement percentage. That's 12 more years of putting our lives on the line. 12 more years breathing in bad carcinogens at the airport and risking injury. It's time the City and the Airport stop treating our officers like they don't matter-until they do. Airport Police lives matter and in the event of a major tragedy at one of L.A.'s airports we are the ones who are on the front lines risking our lives."
The Los Angeles World Airports is a proprietary department of the City of Los Angeles. The Airport Police are an autonomous agency with all salary and benefits paid by the Airport primarily through passenger landing fees not by any city or state taxes. There are no increased costs or impact to the city general fund.
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The Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Association (LAAPOA) represents the sworn police officers and firefighters of the Los Angeles Airport Police Department assigned to protect and serve Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), LA/Ontario International Airport (ONT) and Van Nuys Airport (VNY). For more information on LAAPOA, please visit laapoa.com.
Website: http://www.laapoa.com
Twitter: @AirportPoliceLA http://twitter.com/AirportPoliceLA
Facebook LAAPOA: http://www.facebook.com/LAAPOA
YouTube LAAPOA Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/LAAPOATV
