Yuba Negotiations Update
Greetings Union Family,
Your Yuba Court Negotiations Team met with the Court for our second contract bargaining session. We made several proposals, such as:
Increases to sick leave and vacation accruals. We proposed 15 hours of sick leave/month and increased the vacation accruals by 5 hours per year of service.
Salary raises: 7% in year 1, 7% in year 2, and 7% in year 3.
An increase to the court’s health dependents’ (employee plus one) premium coverage from 80 to 85%.
Increasing the retirement health contribution rate from the Court for 15 years of service and onwards.
Language that allows employees to elect to take leave without pay upon mutual agreement.
The Court outwardly let us know that the 7% increases are too high and that they are worried for the years to come with regard to the budget. We will continue to push for reasonable increases to help our members afford the ever-increasing costs of living, groceries, gas, and everyday expenses.
They rejected our proposal for a bilingual pay differential that is built into an employee's regular pay, and want to stick with keeping a log for hours using the skill, with the caveat that hours will be rounded to the nearest half hour instead of the current quarter hour. They also rejected our proposal on more flexible schedules (adding the option of 8 am – 4:30 pm). Finally, they rejected our proposal to reduce letters of reprimand from 2 years to 1 year in your file.
We will not stop here and will creatively counter the court’s responses. We will be holding a Bargaining Action Committee Meeting on November 5th, 12- 1 p.m. in the 2nd-floor conference room. Please speak with your negotiations team and hear about what’s happening in our sessions.
Stay tuned, and please wear red on bargaining days. Our next session is set for the afternoon of November 5th!
