County Workers Union OKs Contract

Ventura County government’s largest labor union approved a tentative contract Friday, potentially ending its most acrimonious salary battle in a decade.

Under the agreement, 4,200 general government workers would receive wage hikes averaging 13% over a four-year period. If the contract is quickly ratified, employees will see the pay raise beginning in their Oct. 18 checks, union leaders said.

Starting in July 2002, employees would additionally earn a 2% annual cost-of-living increase to their retirement pensions. But workers would have to finance the cost of that benefit, beginning in July 2004, through a payroll deduction averaging 2.63%.

The union’s bargaining team was unable to persuade county administrators to make the retirement adjustment retroactive to 1979, when the cost-of-living benefit was removed. That means employees hired since then would not get cost-of-living credit for any years worked before July 2002 when their enhanced retirement benefits are calculated.

The 22 years of back payments were a sticking point that prompted frustrated workers to strike for six days in July. Despite that, the librarians, social workers, accountants and clerks who make up Service Employees International Union Local 998 will be asked to approve what union chief Barry Hammitt termed a “pretty excellent” agreement.

“We reached parity in wages compared to other counties. We got an answer to a portion of our [cost-of-living adjustment],” he said. “When we started, the county was offering a 2.5% raise and refusing to move on a COLA.”

Some of the union’s lowest-paid employees would see their wages rise by 40% during the length of the contract, Hammitt said. And the union won a concession from county officials to continue talking about making the inflationary adjustments retroactive, he said.

Hammitt said the union will push hard on that issue, particularly as it relates to differing interpretations of how a $359-million surplus in the employees’ retirement fund should be spent.

The union has said that money should be used to enhance employee benefits. But the county’s negotiating team, led by County Executive Officer Johnny Johnston, has taken a more conservative approach, arguing that the county cannot rely on that money because of wildly fluctuating securities markets.

“We have to be stingy for a few years and see how things go,” Johnston said. “And then we can take another look.”

As it is, raises in the four-year contract would cost an estimated $30 million, Johnston said. He called the tentative pact a “fair compromise of our differences.”

“It’s something we will manage to afford. It will not be easy,” Johnston said. “But it’s good for the workers, for government and for taxpayers.”

Union leaders will present the tentative contract to members at a meeting Thursday. Members will vote the following week, with ballots being counted Oct. 10, said union President Keith Filegar.

“This contract is a long way from where it started,” Filegar said. “I think it will be ratified.”

Union members fought hard for a contract, filling the Board of Supervisors hearing room on a few occasions to make their case. Union negotiators won an agreement to bring workers’ salaries in line with employees who do similar jobs in neighboring counties. Some salaries had lagged by 27% compared with counterparts.

Thousands of workers walked off the job for six days in July over the union’s demand for improved retirement benefits, nearly shutting some government functions. They agreed to return to work on July 25 to give the county time to review its financial position.

Talks resumed this week, resulting in the pact announced Friday.

Even as negotiations wound down, Johnston was looking over his shoulder at another employee group pushing for higher salaries and expanded benefits. Sheriff’s deputies seek a contract allowing deputies with 25 years of experience to retire at age 50 and receive 75% of their pay.

Some other counties and cities have given that benefit to their law enforcement employees, but Johnston and the Board of Supervisors have so far resisted. The contract for the 750 deputies expired nine months ago.