After more than two years of negotiations with the Engineers and Architects Association, the City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to unilaterally impose a contract that provides fair and reasonable wage, salary and benefit increases to our 7400 EAA-represented employees.

The City negotiated in good faith and put an exceedingly fair deal on the table.

In fact, all of the City's other civilian employees * some 17,000 in total * agreed to the same raise that the City Council unanimously approved for the EAA....Instead of reaching settlement, EAA declared an impasse early in the process, and submitted some 51 issues to an independent fact-finder.

The fact-finder's report, issued in May of this year, supported all of the City's major recommendations.

On June 15, EAA requested the City to transmit its last, best, and final offer. That offer was rejected, and the leaders of the union have called on its members to strike on August 22 and August 23.

EAA-represented employees provide important services to the people of Los Angeles. They work hard. They deserve a FAIR wage and benefits package. They got one.

I should point out that EAA-represented employees are highly-paid compared to most other City employees. The EAA represents the City's accountants and auditors, hardware and software systems experts, administrative professionals, engineers and architects, surveyors and drafting technicians. The average EAA employee will be making about $74,500 under the new agreement. The highest-paid employees will make more than $125,000 under the new deal.

I have a fiduciary responsibility to protect all of the taxpayer-financed services of this city. And I take that responsibility very seriously. I will not break the city's budget or deprive L.A.'s residents of essential services like police, fire protection and road repair in order to meet unreasonable demands.