Final approval to city pay contracts

Even as the Los Angeles City Council approved raises for thousands of
city employees Wednesday, city leaders said the union contracts allow
them to reopen negotiations next year if revenue drops or if voters
reject a telephone-users tax on the February ballot. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

The employee contracts - which come at a time when city revenue growth
has begun to fall sharply - provide 23 percent wage increases over the
next five years for some 200,000 city workers.

The increases come on top of regular "step" increases that can add as
much as 5.5 percent a year to workers' pay. And the contracts add up
to an additional $255 million over the next five years.