*L.A. city workers agree to contribute toward health benefits

The tentative agreement worked out between the city and the Coalition of Los Angeles City Unions was approved by a large majority of the rank-and-file. The deal would have union members forking over 4 percent of their salaries (pension contributions are another 7 percent). Currently, workers pay nothing toward their health care benefits. "We came together in the best interest of both workers and Los Angeles residents," said Tim Butcher, a truck operator with the city's Bureau of Street Services. The city saves around $65 million for the next fiscal year and avoids furloughs (at least for now). But the agreement does nothing to deal with the underfunding of pension obligations - and it still leaves the city with a massive deficit that is being dealt with in a piecemeal, largely short-term manner.

*LAT notes that four out of 18 labor groups actually rejected the labor deal.

Villaraigosa and coalition leaders had repeatedly billed the pact as a way to end furloughs. That argument was undermined somewhat by the fact that the vast majority of workers -- including sanitation workers, librarians, landscapers, street light maintenance crews, zookeepers and every employee at the harbor and airports -- have already been spared from taking unpaid days off. Among those who voted against the deal was the union representing 461 lawyers at City Atty. Carmen Trutanich's office. That group voted 248 to 143 to oppose the pact, said Oscar Winslow, president of the Los Angeles City Attorneys' Assn. "There was a lot of push on the other side to vote for it, but in the end, people looked at it and said this is a bad deal for us," he said.