Labor forum first, we were asked to promote this story by the SEIU local 521!!!

I just got off the phone with Laura. She is an organizer for SEIU local 521. She reads our forum on a regular basis. She has asked our forum to publicize the Kern County fight that is going on. Here is a local TV (KGET) station story and video. It is currently listed as a top story.


Video here: http://www.kget.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId=20172@video.kget.com


http://www.kget.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=16a15a63-8711-40ba-aeb0-147cc0cd15f5

Service employees weren’t the only ones unhappy with the county’s latest contract offer.



Sheriff’s deputies and District Attorney investigators have been busy negotiating for many months, but still don’t have a deal.

As the vote to authorize a strike by service workers is less than a day away, the pressure is on the county to respond on all fronts.

With an authorization by the Service Employees International Union to strike looming over Kern County, the Kern Law Enforcement Association (KLEA) also asks to be heard by the same county negotiator.

William Douglas is Kern County’s chief negotiator, and chisels out the deals county supervisors must approve.

Douglas faces two fronts while a union accuses him of reneging on a promise.

FULL STORY AT LINK.

The local's link: http://www.seiu521.org/

:woohoo: MKJ

Sometimes it is the battles we don't know about that help shape our collective futures. I want to thank all those union workers who are working for the people!

This is my first post ever, though I have been a lurker lo these many years on DU and on this forum in particular.

A bit of background - March 1st of this year, Local 521 was formed when five locals (415, 535, 700, 715 and 817) joined together to become one larger, more powerful local. I have been honored to work with these members the last six months as they strive to build a stronger union for public employees in California's Central Valley. Much progress has been made toward convincing the Kern County Board of Supervisors that they are serious, but as one member put it the other day, "This is where the rubber meets the road."

They are now standing together to face down a Board that is unresponsive to the needs of workers in the public sector. The wages here have not kept up with cost of living increases, and the inequities in pay to similar jobs in comparable counties are significant. In addition, the Board has endeavored to impose increasingly unfavorable retirement packages on new employees in the last few contracts, leading to further problems with recruitment and retention. And the number of "extra help" employees, who work without benefits while performing the same work as permanent employees, has increased dramatically in Kern County over the last decade. These workers are laid off every nine months, and may be re-hired two months later. Many of these work for years, nine months on, two months off, while the county benefits from their experience without compensating them for their service. Filling permanent jobs with extra help employees (i.e., internal outsourcing) has also impacted the union's bargaining strength - about 1 in 5 employees are extra help, and until recently ineligible for union membership. The extra help employees began an organizing campaign in February and after a tough fight with the county and many delays, won recognition. They will begin their own contract negotiations soon.

I do want to point out that as a staff organizer, I do not speak for the members of SEIU Local 521. The union's voice is that of the workers, and they can speak for themselves. And the Kern County members of 521 have been doing that quite eloquently and forcefully during the negotiation process with the Kern County Board of Supervisors over the last few months.

If you go the Kern County chapter web page (http://www.seiu521.org/onthejob/worksiteProfiles.cfm?worksiteProfileID=3069)you will find links to video of recent worker actions, as well as the news that tonight they voted overwhelmingly to strike rather than to accept the county's latest offer.

Again, it has been a privilege to work with the Kern County members. I got in touch with Steve (thanks Mabus) because I wanted folks to know what these workers have accomplished in the short time since they became Local 521. California (and the rest of the country too) has a lot riding on the success of workers' efforts to build union strength, particularly in the Central Valley.

Stay Tuned!

Lauren

I hope to post some more about this story a little later today myself.