Courtroom interpreters walk off job over pay cut

Union alleges new benefit system lowers paychecks

Courtroom foreign-language interpreters walked off their jobs in Alameda County on Wednesday and plan another one-day walkout Thursday in San Francisco, saying regional court officials are refusing to negotiate over changes in benefits that will cut into their paychecks.

Alameda County courts employ 41 staff interpreters, and all of them appeared to have joined the protest, said Mary Lou Aranguren, lead negotiator for the California Federation of Interpreters union. She said some interpreters who work for the courts as contractors also joined the picket lines.

The San Francisco courts employ 19 interpreters. The union held its first walkout last week in San Mateo County and said all 10 court interpreters took part. More walkouts in the 15-county coastal Northern California region are likely if the impasse continues.

In California court cases, the interpreters translate for witnesses and other participants who speak little or no English.

“The courts continue to treat us as a separate and unequal workforce. They’re engineering an artificial shortage of staff interpreters by making it harder and harder to survive doing this job,” Aranguren said.

The interpreters’ contract with courts expired six months ago. Michael Yuen, chief executive officer of San Francisco Superior Court and chairman of court administrators for the 15-county region, said Wednesday that negotiations had broken off in early March at the union’s request.

The union says its interpreters, mostly women and minorities, are paid less than contractors and 30 percent below the wages of interpreters in federal courts.

When court employees were recently required to increase their pension contributions in exchange for higher benefits, the courts compensated other employees by raising their wages but have denied raises for interpreters, the union said.

Yuen said interpreters in some counties, including San Francisco, had been paying the pension contributions for years and would get “a windfall” if everyone in the region got raises now to offset the contributions.

He said the courts have offered a salary plan, “which we believe is generous,” that would give a majority of interpreters a 15 percent raise over three years.

Some court proceedings have had to be postponed because of the walkouts, and others have continued with substitute translators. Alameda County Public Defender Brendon Woods, in a memo to his staff attorneys before Wednesday’s walkout, instructed them to object if a judge wants to use an interpreter who lacks certification, and to seek postponements unless a client would have to spend time in jail.

The protest has drawn support from six Bay Area legislators, who urged court officials to increase interpreters’ pay and said the state has made funding available for interpreter services.

“At a time when immigrant communities are vulnerable ... this issue is more critical than ever,” the lawmakers said in a letter to Yuen last week. It was signed by state Sens. Nancy Skinner, Jerry Hill and Scott Wiener and Assembly members Rob Bonta, David Chiu and Mark Stone, all Democrats.