Court Workers Walk Out in Ventura County Protest

About 200 Ventura County Superior and Municipal court employees walked off their jobs Thursday afternoon to protest stalled wage negotiations.

But the county’s 26 courtrooms were kept open and operating with the help of management personnel and other non-union workers filling in for those who staged the walkout after the morning court session, Ventura County Clerk Richard Dean said.

“The first half-hour was a little hectic, but everything is back in order,” Dean said.

The walkout by courthouse workers, which is expected to continue today, is the second action taken this week by members of the Public Employees Assn. of Ventura County, a 4,000-member union whose contract with the county expired June 28.

On Wednesday, about half the county’s 580 welfare office workers staged a walkout at the six offices of the county’s Public Social Service Agency, agency director James Isom said. The offices, including one in Simi Valley, remained open with work performed by management employees, he said.

The union has asked for a 4% wage increase from Sept. 1 to the end of the year, as well as a 3% wage increase for 1988, association executive director Barry Hammitt said.

The county has offered a 1% wage increase starting in October, county officials said. Negotiations between the two groups are scheduled to continue Monday.

Hammitt said that, depending on the results of Monday’s negotiating session, “we will have rolling job actions on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of next week.”

A decision by union leaders on whether to call for a strike vote will probably be made next week, Hammitt said.