Local 2700 and 512 – County Negotiations Update #10

 

February 9, 2009

COALITION NEGOTIATIONS

 

Your negotiating team met with management on Thursday, February 5th, and we made progress on some non economic issues.  The County agreed to our proposal to eliminate a loophole that allowed a probationary employee to be released after the end of his/her probation when management didn’t get the paper work done on time. Management also agreed to extend due process rights to suspensions of more than 3 days rather than the legal minimum of more than 5 days.

 

The County made a slight revision in its absurd health care proposals when it withdrew the proposal that would have allowed the county to decide how much to pay, if anything, for health care for future hires.  It has not, however, modified the rest of its slash and burn health care proposal to cap the dollar amount it pays for health care, and the proposal to eliminate retiree medical for new hires.

 

In light of our adamant opposition to the County’s proposed 7% pay cut, the County asked us again if we would consider any labor savings to reduce layoffs and help balance the budget.  We have been meeting with union members throughout the County, and we have asked for your feedback about this issue.  Based on your input and our discussions among our negotiation team, we told management that we are prepared to consider some changes only if,  the County does everything possible to save money without cutting programs and employees. The County also needs to move off its health care proposals. We emphasized that all employees, up to and including the Board of Supervisors must make the same level of sacrifices.  Indeed, we told management that the Board of Supervisors should lead by example, and cut their salaries now at the same or higher level.

 

We outlined in very general terms the parameters of what we may do.  We made it clear that we are not prepared to cut our monthly salaries and hourly wages.  In light of the current economy we will consider options to reduce, for a set period of time, our pay by things such as reducing our work week, unpaid furlough days and/or contributions to a bailout fund. Time is of the essence as the Board of Supervisors is moving forward on adopting a multi-year budget in March.  We must continue to discuss ways to generate savings to the County that will not be detrimental to our survival. 

 

We are very appreciative of your feedback from Negotiations Update #9. The majority of you told us that you would be in favor of furlough days.  Some of you expressed interest in reducing the work week.  We also received feedback that you want us to hold the County accountable for unnecessary waste that continues to go on.  We received one clear and concise message from everyone that you will not work the same amount of hours for less pay!

 

We have been asked by several of you what does furlough mean. Furloughs are days off without pay.  We would propose that our accruals (i.e. vacation, sick leave, floating holidays.) not be impacted.   In fact, we have language in our MOU that addresses how accruals are calculated when you are furloughed.  Specifically, Section 18.3 states: “Full time and part-time employees who take furlough time shall have their vacation, sick leave, floating holiday, and any other payroll computed accruals computed as though they had worked the furlough time…”

 

Many of you wanted for us to explain the differences in a reduced work week vs. furlough days.  As stated above, furlough days are days off without pay, without loss of accruals.  A reduced work week is similar to “Leave Without Pay” working less than 40 hours per week (i.e. working 38 hrs per week) and not receiving pay for the hours worked.  We do not have language in our MOU that protects our accruals; however, we can propose to maintain our accruals if we were to propose a reduced work week.

 

We resume negotiations on Thursday, February 12th.   We welcome your feedback, so please send your comments to Carrie Del Bonta at delbontac@aol.com or Sue Lambert at slambert707@yahoo.com . You may also contact your bargaining team member listed below. 

NEGOTIATING TEAM

 2700: Mary Alejandro, John Christolos, Jr., Arturo Cruz, LaTonya Davis, Margaret Harris, Rosa Jaureque, Imelda Lucas, Phyllis Osenga, Jan Reynolds, Nicole Rochin, Cynthia Ruehlig, Kathy Sinclair

512: Eva Zander, Renata Pierce, Gayle Walls-Burns, Rachel Foster, Eric Sanders, Jeff Waters, Jim Ryan, Sue                                                      Lambert               Alternates: Paul Tehaney and Vinod Maharaj