We represent 1,100 Kern County Extra Help workers.   

 
Kern County Extra Help Wins Equal Pay!
Kern County Extra Help voted with an overwhelming 97 % yes vote to finalize their contract on July 24.
Extra Help pay is now equal to their permanent counterparts. More importantly, extra help employees also have a contract with additional rights and protections that create a foundation to build on.
Some of the new benefits won by extra help employees include shift differentials, paid jury duty for all, grievance procedures, bilingual pay, uniforms, tool insurance and travel expenses.

Next step: Become a member and make your union stronger. Stay tuned for actions revolving around the Civil Service Commission. There is something wrong with the Civil Service testing system when employees can successfully work as extra help year after year, yet not pass the Civil Service test for the position. We also need to make sure the county is not using extra help to avoid filling permanent county positions.



Kern County's Offer
The County of Kern presented their Last, Best and Final offer through the State Mediator on July 10, 2008. The following is full contract language that the parties had been working with and was used by the County in making their final offer.

A vote of extra help employees to accept or reject the County's offer is scheduled for July 24th. The primary issues that prevented an agreement between the parties were medical coverage, vacation and sick leave. No offer was made by the County in these areas.
Obviously, the minimum 8% salary increase along with the many other tentative agreements will make the offer attractive to many extra help employees We will be adding the equity adjustment list to the website as soon as it is available.

VOTE TO ACCEPT OR REJECT THE OFFER BY ATTENDING THE ELECTION: 
All Extra Help balloting on the County’s Last and Best Final Offer will take place at the following locations on Thursday July 24, 2008. Extra Help Employees can get
clarifications of the proposal and cast their vote at any of the following locations at the designated times.

East Bakersfield Veteran’s Hall
2101 Ridge Road, Bakersfield, CA 93305
1:30pm-8pm

Mojave DHS: Conference Rm.
2340 Highway 58, Mojave, CA 93268
8:30am-9:30am

Ridgecrest DHS: Break Rm.
1400 N. Norma Ste. 123, Ridgecrest, CA 93555
10:30am -11:30am

Probation Camp Erwin Owen
14401 Sierra Way, Kernville, CA 93238
1:30pm-2:30pm

Taft DHS: Conference Rm.
119 N. 10th St., Taft, CA 93268
9:00 am-10:00am

Lamont DHS: Conference Rm.
10215 Stobaugh St, Lamont, CA 93241
12pm-1pm

Delano DHS: Conference Rm.
1816 Cecil Avenue, Delano, CA 93820
8:30 am- 9:30am

Shafter DHS: Conference Rm.
115 Central Valley Highway, Shafter, CA 93263
10:15am-11:15am

Probation Larry J. Rhoades Kern Crossroad Facility
17824 Quality Rd, Bakersfield, CA 93308
12:30pm-2pm

See the flyer to view the highlights  of the last, best, and final offer which is up for ratification.

  Full Kern County's proposal


MOU Exhibit A, B & Explanation

To determine the amount of your salary increase upon adoption by the Board of supervisors of the Last Best and Final offer, look for your classification on either Exhibit A  or Exhibit B.  Add 4% to the increase shown. If your classification is not shown on either Exhibit, your increase will be 8%.

Effective with the first day of payroll period 2009-14 (July 11, 2009), the base pay for all represented classes will increase by another 4%.

Uniform Issue Update for Kern Medical Center
Your employee representative team is in the process of meet-and-confer bargaining regarding the dress code issue. Nothing has been finalized, and you are under no obligation to purchase any specific uniforms. Your team will notify you of the findings. For more information, read the flyer: 
 Kern County Medical Center uniform issue


Contract Meeting: Know Your Contract

Do you have questions about your Union contract and Union rights? Concerns about how the California State budget deficit could affect your clients and services? Attend this informational meeting with your new Local 521 staff representative.

May 29, 2008 - 6 to 8:30 p.m.
John's Pizza Parlor, 348 W. Ridgecrest Blvd.

RSVP to Andre L. Taylor (661) 321-4174 or andre.taylor@seiu521.org. Food & drinks will be provided.



State of the County is Good!
Several of our County and Extra Help Bargaining Team members attended the State of the County dinner and address by Chairman of the Board of Supervisors Michael Rubio on January 28, 2008. During the dinner, extra help team members Skye Phinney and Kim Barry listened while Supervisor Rubio talked about protecting funding for Kern Medical Center and providing health care coverage for local children.

No mention was made of providing health care coverage to Kern County extra help employees. Rubio talked about the looming storm of financial challenges and things to look forward to. He also discussed the accumulation of the County’s largest financial reserves ever!

Let’s tell the Board of Supervisors to put some of that money toward the health and welfare of extra help workers. Let’s stand together to demand that dedicated extra help workers are treated fairly

Circulate the petition below and return to your shop steward or Union office at 1001 17th Street in Bakersfield.

Petition: Standing Together


Extra Help Bargaining Team members
Skye Phinney and Kim Barry

 

Bargaining Updates
January 9, 2008 – Our Bargaining Team has declared impasse with the County due to the County’s refusal to offer a fair contract to our workers.

Some of the key issues in dispute are:

• Retroactive Pay: The County refuses to make pay increases retroactive to the same date that extra help not included in our bargaining units received raises in 2007. Why shouldn’t extra help workers in our bargaining units receive the same retro pay as others? The County wants to punish our extra help workers for being a part of a Union and take away our strength.
• Holidays: The County refuses to allow extra help workers to receive any holiday pay at all. Extra help workers should not be punished without pay when they are forced to take a holiday off. Extra help should receive the same pay that permanent workers receive for holidays.
• Health Care Insurance: We asked the County to pay for a share of a healthcare insurance plan. They currently pay for all of our medical care when we don’t have coverage and are forced to visit Kern Medical Center for care. But they refuse to pay anything for a plan that could lead to better employee health through preventive care and peace-of-mind. We have asked for a good faith amount of only $25 and the County still refuses to help.
• Agency Shop: The County refuses to recognize that more than one-half of extra help workers have already asked for representation by Local 521. The County is demanding that we take a vote to make sure that all extra help pay their fair share. Permanent workers have agency shop provisions to guarantee fair share. Why can’t we? Because they do not want us to be united and are trying to weaken our Union.
• A Powerful Voice on the Job: The County refuses to let us have an adequate number of shop stewards to represent extra help employees. They want to limit us to five (5) shop stewards for well over 1,000 extra help workers. And they refuse to let the experienced stewards from the permanent workforce represent us. It is not their business who should represent us. They want to split us from the permanent workers and, again, weaken our Union. Our Union wants at least the same language that permanent workers have in their contract, which allows for one shop steward per 100 workers with additions to adjust for geographical locations, unit, or multiple shift coverage.
• Jury Duty: It’s a citizen's civic responsibility to serve on a jury; and the County should strongly uphold that principle by paying all extra help employees for that service, as they do all permanent employees. However, the County refuses to include language in our contract that would require departments to pay extra help for jury duty service.

December 14, 2007 – Our Bargaining Team made presentations on our key issues:

• Holiday pay
• Health insurance plan
• Retroactive pay
• Shop stewards

We are asking for paid holidays, a stipend for a health insurance plan and any pay increases retroactive to the same date that extra help in other bargaining received a raise (professional and supervisory extra help units).

We are also asking that the County allow one shop steward per 100 employees with similar contract language to the permanent employees. The County wants to allow just one shop steward per bargaining unit.

December 11, 2007 – We worked out most of the non-economic issues of the contract, such as the grievance procedure and stand-by and availability pay. The County and Union agreed that extra help will not be utilized or required to work on a stand-by or availability basis, therefore there will be no need for stand-by or availability pay.

December 5, 2007 – We made several more tentative agreements and met with County Personnel Director Mark Quinn. We had an open discussion on the language that we proposed (Article II, Section 8) on giving extra help the opportunity for permanent employment status with the County as well as creating a re-hire process for extra help workers. Discussion centered on whether it is a Civil Service procedure or a bargaining matter. The county took the position that it is a Civil Service matter, whereas our Union stands by its position that it can be bargained. Mark Quinn acknowledged our concerns and will check with lawyers from the County to verify whether or not it is a Civil Service matter.

November 30, 2007 – Our Bargaining Team presented our proposal to the County and the County made their first counterproposal. We reached several tentative agreements and made good progress. There were questions regarding whether some of the proposed agreements were bargaining issues or Civil Service matters. We requested that the County’s personnel director attend the next bargaining session to discuss the matter. 

 Meet Your Bargaining Team

Technical
Kim Barry (661) 868-6300


Clerical
Tina James (661) 868-1862
jamestina1@hotmail.com

Alternate Katherine Salazar
(661) 868-1843

Administrative
Ebone King (661) 868-1757


Trades, Craft & Labor
Skye Phinney (661) 862-8819
phinneys@co.kern.ca.us