Union workers protest proposed reductions

About 700 of the county's union workers protested health care benefit cuts Tuesday by noisily parading through hallways and packing the supervisors chambers.

The crowd, most wearing purple shirts signifying membership in the Service Employees International Union, sounded whistles, bullhorns and plastic hand-clapping devices.

The demonstration, which lasted nearly three hours and was one of the largest labor rallies in recent years, was timed to coincide with a Sonoma County Board of Supervisors debate and vote on proposals to shift higher health premium costs onto retirees and non-union employees.

Board approval of the measure on a 5-0 vote effectively gives county administrators the green light to continue offering similar proposals at the bargaining table.

Union leaders said county negotiators are offering no compromises in their proposals to decrease county contributions to health premiums. And they urged the crowd to work for supervisorial candidates in three seats up for election in November.

"We are trying to take back our supervisors from those who have given it to the business interests and developers," said Lisa Maldonado, executive director of the North Bay Labor Council.

Two SEIU-endorsed candidates, Rue Furch in the 5th District and Shirlee Zane in the 3rd District, told demonstrators that county administrators haven't adequately weighed alternatives that would be less onerous to workers and retirees. Furch and Zane have said that, if elected, they would oppose the administration's plans.

Zane, CEO of the Council on Aging, said the county should honor previous commitments to provide health care to retirees.

"A promise is a promise," Zane said. "And there are other ways to balance our budget instead of on the backs of you."

Furch, a county planning commissioner, said she feared that supervisorial support for health care premium shifts would alienate county workers and retirees to the point where "we won't be able to get the best and brightest workers in the future."

Demonstrators, some of whom were bused to Sonoma County from other areas, gathered at noon at a parking lot at Mendocino Avenue and Administration Drive for about 90 minutes before marching through hallways of the main administration building. The group chanted and carried signs saying, "No contract, no peace," "Share, don't shift" and "We are all retirees."

County Administrator Bob Deis said that "regular county service functions were not affected" by the demonstration.

Several Santa Rosa police officers guarding doors to the supervisors' chambers allowed the room to fill to the 100-person capacity and then made others wait outside.

Colleen Fernald, a Sebastopol City Council candidate and a frequent speaker at the board's afternoon public comment sessions, used her time before the supervisors to admonish the union group to be more respectful and less noisy in getting its point across.

Damita Davis-Howard, president of SEIU Local 1021, responded that "sometimes you have to speak with a louder voice and in a different manner when people are not listening."

You can reach Staff Writer Bleys W. Rose at 521-5431 or bleys.rose@pressdemocrat.com.