COUNTYWIDE : Welfare Workers Say Talks Stalled

Leaders of a county employees’ union that represents about 1,000 workers complained to the Board of Supervisors Tuesday that they are being asked to give up too much in their contract negotiations with the county.

“I’ve never seen negotiations that were handled in the way that they were handled this year,” said Harlan Royce, president of the Eligibility Workers Local, which represents welfare and social service case workers. “They’re entirely in a take-away mode.”

The talks have stalled and even a mediator has not been able to unravel them, according to labor leaders and the county’s chief of employee relations, Dave Carlaw.

According to Royce, the impasse is not the result of a disagreement about salary but rather a dispute over whether the workers should have to increase their caseloads. Carlaw, who also addressed the board, said the county has tried to accommodate the workers’ concern by adding 250 more positions to the department.

The two sides will continue meeting in an effort to hammer out an agreement, officials said later.