City contract proceeds

Los Angeles officials on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to a five-year contract covering some 22,000 city workers, the largest wage settlement of its kind. Daily News.

The contract includes a unique cost-savings provision in its final two years that forces employees to find savings in the way they work or face penalties.

The contract will now go before a union vote and then return to the council for final approval. Contract details were expected to remain secret until the first union meetings, tentatively set for Friday. But it is believed to be for at least a 13 percent increase over the life of the contract. The deal would cost the city an estimated $30 million a year.