LONG BEACH – The City of Long Beach has reached a tentative three-year labor agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers or IBEW, which represents city employees in the skilled and general basic and supervisor units.
The tentative agreement reflects the strong, collaborative partnership between the city and IBEW as well as a shared commitment to providing fair and competitive compensation in today’s challenging labor market. The agreement includes general salary increases totaling 9% over a three-year term for all represented employees. This approach not only ensures that city employees are fairly compensated for retention and recruitment purposes but also helps maintain the city’s competitiveness and attractiveness as an employer of choice.
The agreement provides long-term workforce stability and helps to ensure the continuity of essential city services. Together with improved hiring practices, the agreement reflects the city’s continued commitment to retaining current employees, attracting qualified candidates and maintaining a strong workforce despite a challenging fiscal environment. Long Beach has been working to fill open positions critical to service delivery response. Following the voter approved passing of charter amendment Measure JB in November 2024, the city has sped up hiring to an average of 90 days, implemented local job preferences and lowered the vacancy rate from an average of 24% to 17%. However, continuing to make progress depends on offering competitive wages that allow the city to attract top talent and retain experienced employees amid strong competition from other jurisdictions.
This action is accounted for in the city’s multiyear financial forecast, with increases smaller in the current year and larger increases in the out years to align with revenue growth. With this agreement, the recently adopted Fiscal Year 27 Budget continues to be structurally balanced.
Also agreed upon by IBEW is a new annual winter holiday closure, which will generate cost savings for the city. Non-critical and/or non-essential City of Long Beach services, as determined by the city manager or appropriate appointing authority, will close annually for the period between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Employees not required to work will take unpaid authorized leave or will be able to use accrued paid leave such as vacation, personal holiday/in-lieu holiday, and banked time-off during the closure. The holiday closure is consistent with other local governments that implement similar periods of holiday off times such as the cities of Fullerton, Santa Ana and Westminster and is expected to generate savings for the city.
The tentative agreement also includes the following major terms:
- Three-year contract term from Oct. 1, 2026, to Sept. 30, 2029.
- General salary increases of two percent (2.0%) in the first year, three and a half percent (3.5%) for the second year, and three and a half percent (3.5%) in the third year.
- Updates to skill pays, including the addition of classifications to current skill pays.
- Modifications to special compensation, including uniform allowance, free from duty rest period, and boot allowance provisions.
- Increased Compensatory Time Off (CTO) allowing employees to bank overtime up to one hundred twenty (120) hours.
- Converting the temporary vacation accrual maximum cap to a permanent cap for permanent full-time and part-time employees.
- Carryover of funding for the education assistance program.
Prior to reaching this agreement, city and IBEW representatives held four meetings since April 2026. Members of the IBEW voted to ratify the agreement on Sept. 1, 2026. The agreement will be presented to the Long Beach City Council for consideration on Oct. 6, 2026. IBEW represents approximately 874 employees.