Cal City employees protest for a new contract
CALIFORNIA CITY — Members of California City’s Miscellaneous Employees Association implored the City Council to take up good-faith negotiations for a new contract, as the union members have been working without one for 17 months.
Members of the union, which represents most of the city staff, including Public Works, spoke during the public comment period of the Council’s meeting, on Tuesday.
“Me and the members of the Association are here in protest of the city failing to negotiate in good faith,” representative David Toledo said.
He said members met, earlier that day with the city’s labor attorney to discuss an unfair practices charge that was filed.
“The city continues to stall and not meet and confer in good faith,” he said, which is in violation of the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act, the state law that governs labor management relations for
local governments.
Toledo said the union is asking for a 5% pay raise, retroactive to July 1, 2021, which would have been the start of a new contract.
The attorney union negotiators with whom they met said they didn’t have the authority to make any decisions on the city’s behalf, which led them to approach the Council directly.
“The city keeps stating it doesn’t have enough money to pay our employees, yet the city is willing to pay attorney’s fees for the mistakes of management,” Toledo said.
In addition, the city has made unilateral changes to the Association’s Memorandum of Understanding, the latest to the CalPERS medical benefit plan for retirees. This has affected every employee and is costing them more money than they are making, he said.
“I’m asking that the city management employees stop harassing members of our association, that the city cease and desist making unilateral changes to policies and procedures and the city offer the association a fair contract,” Toledo said.
He was followed by several additional employees making the case for contract negotiations and a pay raise.
Tiffany Carter, who has worked for Cal City for seven years, said the staffing shortages mean all of them are tasked with several different duties. The city is also suffering from a lack of department heads in nearly every area.
“We have no management, we have no help and, with the rising cost of living, we have no money,” she said. “Work with us please, not against us. We ask for a fair cost of living.”
Member Andrew Maxwell said they have been out of contract for more than a year and they’re unable to wait any longer.
“Many of the members and myself are struggling,” he said. “We need a fair contract and a fair cost-of-living adjustment.”
Association member Harvey Brown called the employees “the pulse of the city, the heartbeat.”
“Every day we get up, at night if we have to, we fix, we replace, repair, we go, without being asked more than once, we get up and fulfill our duties,” he said.
Brown said many members rely on second jobs to make ends meet and cannot afford to have family members covered by their medical benefits.
In response to the protest, interim city manager Jim Hart said he has reached out to the president of every union in the city to start the contract negotiation process and has started scheduling meetings.
“We aren’t ignoring it, we’re starting negotiations,” he said.