2-year contract shows SEIU 521 members are key to quality services
Four hard-fought months of negotiations, countless purple actions and mega rallies, and a strong Community First message finally yielded the right results: A fair contract that prioritizes front line services and invests in a cutting edge workforce.
“As a county worker, I fully believe that it’s time the county reinvests in its workforce so that we can provide quality services to our community,” said Janet Diaz, Patient Business Services Clerk. “Our patients are important to us as well as our community.”
While we will continue to work hard to push the county to improve worker recruitment and retention rates, the contract is a good start in the right direction.
- 5% salary increase over 2 years
- Salary step adjustments to attract more talent
- Include frontline health care workers in Unit Based Team decision-making in order to make health care reform successful
To help keep the retiree health plan sustainable, workers will contribute $10 per pay period toward retiree out-of-pocket medical expenses and new hires will have to work 15 years before getting retiree medical.
The contract was ratified by 85% percent of the voting membership.
wRen Bradley, Chapter President said: “I am very proud of our members who made this negotiations all about preserving and enhancing quality public services. We knew the only way we could keep this county as strong as it has been was to ensure county services did not suffer. For six years our members sacrificed wages and benefits to save vital county services. We believe this down payment is a good start. We will continue in raising the alarm bells about having a cutting edge work force especially as we near implementation of the Affordable Care Act.”
The Board of Supervisors still needs to meet for final adoption of the contract.
“This is a decent win but it shows we need to do more to ensure no takeaways for all members. The elimination of the lower 98-99 steps was awesome. This campaign helped us gear up for the next challenge.”— Veronica Frausto, Administrative Assistant
Congratulate the Negotiations Team for their hard work on Facebook!
Joint press release:
County and SEIU 521 Reach Agreement
Modest Wage Increases and Sharing Health Premium Costs and Retiree Health Benefit Costs
Media Coverage:
County reaches two-year agreement with SEIU Local 521, Morgan Hill Times, Sept. 2, 2013
Tim Montemayor, KGOAM (Radio clip), Aug. 31, 2013
KTUV (Video clip), Aug. 30, 2013
KGO News (Radio clip), Aug. 30, 2013
Santa Clara County’s largest union approves deal, Mercury News, Aug. 30, 2013
Santa Clara County, union reach tentative deal, Mercury News, Aug. 28, 2013
Santa Clara County 911 Dispatchers, Union Workers Reach Labor Deal, San Francisco CBS, Aug. 28, 2013
Santa Clara County Reaches Tentative Deal with Workers’ Union, NBC Bay Area, Aug. 28, 2013
