Labor dispute disrupts courts
Strike by 300 employees shutters courtrooms at Hall of Justice in S. J.
“Until we hear from them, we’ll keep doing this.” — Ingrid Stewart, president of the Superior Court Professional Employees Association
SAN JOSE — For the second day in a row Thursday, Santa Clara County court administrators struggled to maintain essential legal services at 11 courthouses in the face of a strike by 300 employees.
At the Hall of Justice, more than half the courtrooms were dark because most of the Superior Court’s clerks had walked off the job. More than 80 prospective jurors turned up, only to be sent home.
Just like the first day of the strike Wednesday, three-quarters of the legal system’s clerks, janitors, researchers and family law mediators Thursday participated in the walkout after the two sides last week reached an impasse over pay increases.
All but essential hearings were postponed and seven clerk’s offices were closed by the court’s first strike in 14 years.
Court workers picketed again Thursday outside the Hall of Justice on Hedding Street in San Jose. Ingrid Stewart, president of the Superior Court Professional Employees Association, said the group has not heard from court officials since the strike began Wednes- day morning.
“Until we hear from them, we’ll keep doing this,” Stewart said.
The workers chose the Hall of Justice because it is typically the busiest of the county’s courthouses.
On Friday, the group plans to picket at the new $208 million Family Justice Center near St. James Park, which is set to open Aug. 15.
The court has encouraged anyone with a sched- uled hearing to continue to show up during the work action.
If the hearing cannot be held because of staffing shortages, it will be postponed.
Otherwise, the court said it is providing essential services, as required by law, such as arraigning defendants in custody within 48 hours.
Last year, the Superior Court Professional Employees Association turned down a net 4.5 percent wage increase over two years.
This summer, the court sweetened the deal by adding an immediate 5 percent raise for the 88 percent of workers who have been with the courts for at least six years.
In addition, the court offered last year and this summer to give the workers an extra 6 percent, which they would have to pay into the state retirement system. Although workers wouldn’t see that money, it would boost their gross pay and ultimately their retirement benefits.
But the association, citing the increased cost of living since 2008, is seeking an additional 3 percent wage hike during the second year of its two-year contract.
Experienced counter clerks make about $55,600 a year in a region with a notoriously high cost of liv- ing.
The court already has lost about a third of its staff through attrition since the economy tanked in 2008, and the clerks say they cannot keep up with the overwhelming amount of data processing, filing, and phone calls and visits from the public.