Hundreds of workers threaten to strike

Negotiations between jurisdiction and union not indicative of respect, employees’ stress

SANTA CRUZ >> Santa Cruz County workers are asking county negotiators to offer better working conditions. If they don’t fulfill this request, the employees that make up much of SEIU 521’s bargaining unit said Tuesday morning, they will strike.

Dozens of workers that staff several departments at Santa Cruz County offices flooded the Board of Supervisors chamber and the adjacent hallway Tuesday morning to convey their disappointment with the elected leaders and their staff members. They stated their three main concerns during public comment: Climate change, pay disparities and racial justice.

Climate change

Though the COVID-19 Delta variant has kept the virus moving through the community, county workers were recently told by their employer that their ability to work remotely would be scaled back. This damages people who were saving money and time by being able to stay home, those concerned about their carbon footprints and the county itself as telework is a vital recruiting tactic in 2021, SEIU members said in statements and in person.

“We live in a coastal community that is very affected by climate change so I do hope that they take our claims seriously,” said Brian Whiteside, psychiatric nurse practitioner.

County spokesman Jason Hoppin said Tuesday afternoon that Santa Cruz County has one of the most progressive telework policies of any local government in the region.

“We understand the desire to work from home and support it, but at some point, if you are going to serve the public you will need to interact with the public,” he wrote in an email to the Sentinel.

Pay disparities

All three pitfalls revolve around the county’s alleged failure to invest in public health services, said SEIU members such as public health nurse Leona Heavens. This has resulted in understaffed and overturned teams of people who must do more with less, she said.

Heavens worked overtime at emergency shelters and helped find people a place to stay during the CZU Lightning Complex fire; she accepted a furlough and waited things out even as COVID-19 continued to surge. Heavens said she did this because she loves serving the community and is willing to make sacrifices for it, sacrifices she fears county administrators are not willing to make.

“Management spends thousands conducting national recruitment for high-level positions, but when it comes to the people here, management is OK with cutting our wages and paying us less than our counterparts,” she said. “County nurses had to petition for parity of 9% with neighboring counties. While agreeing to meet our request they have proposed to do so over four years, putting us back at the bottom until the contract expires. It is the same for all county employees.”

Katie Williams, another public health nurse, echoed Heavens’ sentiments when telling her story of being the only team member assigned to skilled nursing and other congregate living facility COVID-19 response during the height of the virus’ transmission.

“A lot of people quit, retired or went out on leave… we allocated one nurse to each area as it unfolded so each one had guidance. There was one nurse on schools, one on general employers, one on nursing homes,” Williams said. “I hit my breaking point when we were furloughed for Christmas… people are still going to hospitals, still going to clinics and we were told to go home and not help them.”

When SEIU bargainers asked the county for a chart of what other comparable counties pay their employees in the same categories, it became clear that Santa

Cruz was paying matching classifications less. For example, data shows, a physician assistant or nurse practitioner in Santa Cruz County makes $12,000 on average each month while individuals doing those jobs in Contra Costa, Monterey, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties all make at least $2,000 to $8,000 more.

“We believe pay is comparable to other suburban/rural counties,” Hoppin said on behalf of his agency.

It appears to county workers that the opposite of sacrifice is happening. SEIU stated in a press release issued just before the demonstration, the county approved approximately $2 million in intra-transfers from Health Services Agency programs and resources to Health Services Agency Administration or “reimbursements from internal divisions.” This allegation is supported by an illustrated decrease in intra-fund transfers in last year’s budget vs. an increase in intra-fund transfers in this year’s budget. In the budget overview, county administrative staff state that funds were transferred “for increased overhead rates.”

Hoppin disputed the interpretation.

“Because pay is set by salary schedules, there is no way to take funding from programs and give it to managers or administrators,” he said.

Racial justice

What’s worse than a lower average wage is a wage allegedly reduced even further by the color of one’s skin. Data from a members-only self-survey, provided by SEIU, shows that county workers of color, on average, earn 8.5% less than their white peers. Women of color specifically earn about 10.3% less for their work than their white female counterparts.

“Pay and benefits are set by civil service rules

and salary schedules negotiated among all labor groups. The schedules are gender and colorblind and largely set by seniority. People doing equal work get equal pay in Santa Cruz County. We have no insight into how SEIU is calculating this number,” Hoppin said.

Racial justice equates to more than just pay in the eyes of local SEIU members. When union negotiators asked for Juneteenth off as a part of the agreement, a custom established this year with the federal government’s proclamation of the date as a day of observance, they were told that granting members the holiday would “cause a customer service concern.”

“You’ll have to ask SEIU,” Hoppin said when the Sentinel asked the county to clarify what it meant by the term.

Hoppin added the county offers employees 13 paid holidays a year and that just 9% of employers offer Juneteenth as a paid holiday.

“The county does talk a lot about equity and at least to some of them I think it’s very important,” Williams said. “But I do think there is a lot more talk than there is action. Here is a really good, concrete way that they can prioritize their workers.”

Union demographic data shows that nearly 50% of its 1,400 Santa Cruz County workers are people of color.

“I was told that we could choose Caesar Chavez Day or Juneteenth. It was insulting,” primary care provider Jason Johnston said. “(Most of) my community and my colleagues are Latinx in south county… essential workers are an important part of this community and the board needs to show through public policy that they don’t just have the rhetoric around important issues of social justice, that they’ll follow up with the budget and their actions.”

Amping up asks

Chapter President Veronica Velasquez, as she

stood calmly at the podium and looked purposefully at each of the supervisors, presented the signatures of more than 1,000 of the county’s 1,400 unionized employees.

“You heard firsthand from members who delivered vital services to our community during a global pandemic, who did our part when the county needed us,” the social worker said after her peers were done speaking. “Now it is time for the county to do theirs.”

The petition reads that signers, who worked through fires and furloughs, respect the work put in by facilitating a fair contract. If a contract is not provided, those hundreds of employees intend to walk out.

Hoppin said negotiations are always a process and that county bargainers have been meeting “productively” with SEIU for months.

“We’re meeting again on Friday and expect to eventually reach an agreement,” he said.

Meeting SEIU’s needs

is critical, Johnston, Williams and Whiteside said during their interviews. The pandemic has worn on the mental health of people across many divisions and now they are expected to resume the tasks they were unable to take up in the last year. With retention being an ongoing issue, many employees have had a hard time allowing themselves to take time off and recharge.

“As a nurse practitioner, it is my primary job to care for the psychiatric health of Santa Cruz County so it felt like one crisis piled on top of another crisis,” he said. “I’m glad to see the numbers of COVID cases are going down, but we still have that primary crisis of mental health care.”