Membership Update –
Since the inception of OCMA in September of 2004, membership dues have remained constant at $10 per pay period. Fortunately, dues in the early years were adequate to cover operational costs and we were able to build enough reserves to maintain an adequate bank balance to handle unforeseen costs and minor operational cost increases.
Over the past several years, the balances in the OCMA accounts have remained stable, however, as everyone is well aware, the cost of living and operational costs have increased and our balances are now slowly shrinking. There is no cause for alarm; however, this issue should be addressed sooner rather than later.
As a management labor organization, California law and the rules that govern labor relations in our State, do not allow for OCMA to take advantage of some resources available to non-management labor organizations. If and when an issue arises that requires an appeal process, OCMA, unlike other labor organizations that represent employees, must use the Court system to request relief. Unfortunately, the cost of going to Court far exceeds the cost of what other organizations would have to pay for such relief. This is not an attempt to signal any anticipated action, however when and if such action is required, we need the resources available to us to protect Managers and our Association.
We recently filed a case against the County in support of our Safety Managers (Probation). We prevailed and now the County, because of the decision of the Court, is compelled to go to arbitration. In addition, there are several cases in the Courts now, in which OCMA should be and is very interested, that have a direct impact on our rights as employees and the pension plan. OCMA has already joined with other labor organizations to support ongoing litigation important to our members. This support has been costly, but it is well worth our effort to supporting these cases. One case involves protection of our pensions (Marin Association of Public Employees v. Marin Co Employee’s Retirement Assn.) and the other is related to the California Equal Pay Act (Rizzo v. Yovino). In order to remain fiscally strong and capable of fighting both anticipated and unanticipated battles, the OCMA Board of Directors is seriously considering raising membership dues.
After taking into account our operational costs, the desire to build a healthy litigation fund and the dues of other OC labor associations, the OCMA Board of Directors are proposing an increase in membership dues of $15 per/mo (an increase of $7.50 per pay period).
Your feedback is important, so if you have anything you would like to share concerning this increase, please send an e-mail to: contact@ocma.info