Contra Costa unions plan June 27 strike

Contracts ran out last September. A state mediator has been brought in to help negotiate the impasse.

"We've given them most of what they've asked for in wages, retirement, retiree medical, workers comp, health care, and they say, 'Thanks. But that's not enough,'" said Michael Weinberg, spokesman for the Service Employees International Union Local 535. "We've been in bargaining for a year. The talks never got going at a fast enough clip to stall."

County Administrator John Cullen called news of the one-day strike "disheartening."

"This is interesting because we are still meeting with this coalition on a very regular basis with a mediator, and we were thinking we were making progress," he said. "It's disheartening to see they are taking this action."

The sticking point is the cost of living raises that the unions want members to receive across the board. The county wants to save its resources for only those groups receiving below-market pay.

"We have to be selective," Cullen said.

The union coalition has offered to accept a temporary wage freeze, but balked at extending it to two years. With the cost of fuel and other staples rising, a wage freeze amounts to a wage cut, members say.

Six thousand employees will join the strike, including members of SEIU, the Association of Federal, State and Municipal Employees Locals 512 and 2700, Public Employees Local 1, the Western Council of Engineers, Physicians and Dentists of Contra Costa -- virtually all employees but nurses.

If the strike fails to thaw the county's intransigence on raises, the unions could strike again -- and for longer, Weinberg said.

"Everything's on the table," he said. "I'm not going to rule out any option."

Weinberg said the county has not only ignored the call to cut some management positions, but said the county has hired some new managers and given others raises.

"They call it a parity adjustment," he said -- or, in the case of a manager in the district attorney's office, "an equity adjustment."

Cullen disputed that managers have taken home wage increases.

As for new hires, "The absolute majority of people we hire on a regular basis are rank and file," he said.

The county is developing a contingency plan to keep essential services flowing with remaining staff the day of the walk-out, Cullen said.

"I think it's obvious to all that our top priority must be to lower our growing expenses, increasing our revenues and improving our fund balance," he said. "Unless we do that, we'll be in a position of having to cut, and cut, and cut, year after year."