Bargaining for our new contract started this month and we came prepared! Your elected bargaining team submitted our opening proposal to the County in early June and we came to the table July 2 on time and ready to go.
“Overall I think our first negotiations went well. Although, I felt the county did not come prepared. No mention of the full proposal we submitted, it felt almost as though they were in a hurry to leave, they weren’t prepared as we were to bargain,” said David Gomez, a member of the bargaining team.
What are we proposing?
So far, SEIU 721 has
proposals on workload, caseload and the failure to negotiate
productivity demands because workers are experiencing short staffing
and increases in workload due to budget cuts.
We’ll get to other issues over the next few months. Our contract officially expires September 30.
After our first session we discussed ground rules for negotiations, specifically we requested the County team be comprised of representatives from each department to help streamline the response time on questions and issues.
No proposal yet from the county. County representatives did not bring a counter proposal, nor were they ready to discuss our initial proposal.
*We will meet with the county July 16, 20, 23 and 27, August 3 and 6.