Welfare Eligibility Workers Get a Raise
About 1,000 welfare eligibility workers have ratified an offer from Orange County giving them a 9.5% raise for this year and a 17% increase over the contract’s three-year life, the union’s chief negotiator said.
Weeks before the contract expired June 30, workers received an errant e-mail mistakenly sent from the chief of employee relations, Susan Paul, that derided the union.
“That e-mail helped us,” said Terry Valladolid, chief negotiator for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2076.
A study of welfare eligibility workers that showed the county’s workers were paid well below the statewide average also helped during negotiations, which ended when union members ratified the offer June 28, she said.
Top salary is $16.40 an hour for experienced workers, which is about $34,000 a year, union President Carol Neal said.
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