Robert Greene is an independent journalist and 2026-’27 fellow for the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, which supports his ongoing examination of Los Angeles as it rethinks and remakes how it is governed. You can find his work at LosAngelesRules.com.
Los Angeles County Measure A would establish a new binding arbitration process for some labor negotiations.
The county charter amendment would kick in after contract talks break down between county officials and 14 public safety bargaining units that represent workers who aren’t allowed to strike. A panel of three arbitrators would make the final contract decision.
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That seems simple enough. Give sheriff’s deputies and other first responders who have little leverage – because they can’t strike – a stronger chance to make their case for raises. Isn’t that more fair than simply letting the county impose its “last, best and final offer,” as current rules dictate, on cops and firefighters?
And lifeguards. They’re first responders too.
And medical examiners in the coroner’s office. And dispatchers, district attorney investigators, forestry technicians, crime lab workers and pilots.
And bricklayers.
Wait, what?
Yes, bricklayers. And painters, plumbers, welders, sheet metalworkers and many others in the trades, as well as their foremen and supervisors. All those county employees are included under the measure ostensibly meant to protect public safety workers.
At the root of this proposal is an 11-day strike by Los Angeles County sanitation workers that began the day after the nation celebrated its bicentennial 50 years ago.
Golden State staff
The county went to court to end the walkout. The result was a state Supreme Court ruling that upheld the right of public employee unions to strike but made an exception for workers whose absence would pose an “imminent threat to public health or safety.”
Without the right to strike, police and fire unions claimed to have no clout when bargaining with the appointed city and county managers who negotiate labor contracts, or the elected mayors, city councils and boards of supervisors who sign off on them. They started asking voters for binding arbitration, letting neutral panels step in when talks are going nowhere.
Vallejo was first, adopting the practice in 1970. Stockton did it in 1992. Now nearly two dozen California cities, plus two counties, have voter-imposed binding arbitration.
Having lost power over their highest costs, Vallejo and Stockton ran into serious fiscal problems. Voters in those cities revoked binding arbitration, but it was too late. Vallejo filed for bankruptcy in 2008, Stockton in 2012.
Stockton re-adopted binding arbitration two years ago.
In her motion to get Los Angeles County on board, Supervisor Lindsey Horvath included a link to Stockton’s 2024 ballot re-adoption measure, but also, perhaps inadvertently, to the rest of a document that includes the Stockton council’s strenuous opposition to once again losing control over the city budget.
Dan Morain
At first glance, none of this seems related to Measure J, an alternatives-to-incarceration measure that L.A. County voters adopted in 2020, but hold that thought.
Voters also passed Measure G, a 2024 governance overhaul that for the first time will put a single, publicly accountable elected official – the county executive – in charge of labor negotiations when the change goes into effect in 2028.
Public safety unions opposed both measures. This year, they’re not necessarily wild about Measure E because it would keep J alive despite it being nearly wiped out by the county’s Keystone Kops-like filing and drafting (see “You voted, L.A. County goofed”).
Measure A is the L.A. County public safety unions’ chance to weaken the county executive’s power in contract talks before that position is even filled.
The unions were already gathering signatures for a binding arbitration initiative when the Board of Supervisors agreed earlier this year to spare them the trouble by putting the measure on the ballot themselves.
The supervisors are on the management side of the equation. Why did four of them (Holly Mitchell was the lone holdout) step up for binding arbitration?
Maybe because it wins them back some of the labor affection they lost with their support of Measures J and G. It’s worth noting that after the board’s February vote to move ahead with Measure A, Horvath posted video of handshakes, high fives and hugs from a veritable reception line of sheriff’s deputies and other union members.
Politicians face a collective bargaining dilemma. They want police and firefighter unions to support them during campaigns, but they don’t want voters to blame them for costly labor contracts. The political solution is to stand up for the unions while letting someone else (like neutral arbitrators) take the heat for the hit on the budget.
Paul Thornton
Why end up like Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who made a tough decision to spend a billion scarce dollars on a police contract to boost officer retention and recruiting? Voters who dislike her priorities or who worry about the city’s financial footing can hold Bass accountable on election day.
That’s what voters generally say they want – the power to hold elected officials to account for their decisions.
Yet the very same voters sometimes strip their elected officials of decision-making power and hand it to unaccountable, non-elected people. Like neutral arbitrators, whose decisions are final and unappealable.
In March, the Board of Supervisors approved ballot summary language (the only part of a measure many voters read) that focused on binding arbitration. Then they repealed the wording in July and replaced it with new summary language that focuses on strike prohibition and mentions arbitration (and therefore accountability) in a way that comes off as an afterthought.
And what about those bricklayers? How did they become county workers whose absence would pose an “imminent threat to public health or safety,” who cannot strike but could benefit from binding arbitration?
They’re members of the same collective bargaining unit as metalworkers, who (it is argued) would be needed to fix broken jail cell doors in the event of a public safety emergency. Bargaining units are just that – they negotiate as units and cannot be split among job classifications. That has pulled roofers, floor tile-layers, painters, plumbers and more into the Measure A ambit.
Arguably all 117,000 Los Angeles County employees have some role in safeguarding public safety, or assisting those who do. Measure A would apply to only about 16,500 of them.
Voters who want to remove politics from county labor negotiations will vote “Yes” on Measure A. Voters who want to hold politicians accountable for the county budget will vote “No.” Voters who want to do both will have to wrestle with this basic fact: Taking away politicians’ authority to make decisions also takes away voters’ power to hold those officials accountable.
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