State Labor Deal Avoids a Strike

Averting a threatened strike, the Schwarzenegger administration reached a tentative agreement Saturday afternoon on a three-year contract with a union representing 87,000 state workers.

If ratified by union members, the contract will provide Department of Motor Vehicle employees, auditors in the Department of Insurance, prison cooks and other members of the Service Employees International Union Local 1000 with a 3.5% pay increase beginning July 1 and a one-time $1,000 bonus. The members would receive another cost-of-living pay increase of up to 4% on July 1, 2007.

“I think this is a good deal for not only our members but also for the people of California,” said Yvonne Walker, Local 1000’s vice president for bargaining and a legal secretary at the Department of Justice offices in San Diego.

Union members, who have gone without raises for nearly three years, authorized their leaders to call a strike if negotiations with the state did not produce a contract.

Labor experts were divided on whether such a strike would have been legal, in part because the union’s previous contract, which had expired, contained a no-strike clause.

Up until the last few days, the state was proposing a one-year contract with a 3% raise. A state official said Saturday that the administration increased its offer in exchange for the longer contract.

The union also agreed to changes in the structure of healthcare coverage and pensions for workers hired on or after Jan. 1, 2007.

While pensions for current union members are based on their highest salary in a single year, new workers’ pension benefits would be based on the average of their three highest years. New employees would also have a two-year “vesting period” before the state makes its full contribution to the health coverage of their dependents.

“It helps to control our healthcare costs,” said Lynelle Jolley, communications director for the state Department of Personnel Administration, which handles contract negotiations. “And again, that does not affect current employees.”