The contract bumps the salary range for airport police officers and sergeants up about $6,000. Under the new terms, police officers will make between $44,213 and $63,151. Police sergeants was will make between from $52,244 and $68,841.
The adjustments were a satisfactory compromise when compared to percentages that the association sought at the beginning of negotiations, Airport Authority Commissioner Charlie Lombardo said.
"I think we gave them a very good deal and we also brought labor harmony for the next five years," he said.
During negotiations, the airport authority launched a study looking into the possibility of contracting airport security to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The labor agreement will not suspend that study, Lombardo said.
"We had committed funds to have that analysis done and it still is not completed yet," he said. "We commissioned that and we might as well see what the results are."
But the airport authority was largely satisfied with the agreement, though airport officials would not discuss the nature of the sacrifices and concessions involved in the compromise, airport spokesman Victor Gill said.
"The consensus is that the result was a compromise made by both sides and it was intended to reflect the importance of public safety to the traveling public," Gill said.
The contract also gives employees more vacation time after fewer years of service, bumping employees up to three weeks of vacation per year after five years of service, Gill said. The former contract moved vacations from two weeks to three weeks at the seven-year mark, he added.
In the event that health-care premiums increase over the third to fifth year of the agreement, the airport authority has also agreed to split the additional costs with employees, Gill added.
