Contract talks between county, health services workers’ union deadlock over wages

Labor negotiations between Sonoma County and its health services workers broke down Friday, after the workers’ union declared an impasse over the county’s refusal to grant 5 percent annual salary increases for two years, union officials said.

Such a pay raise would boost salaries for a quarter of the county’s ?250 mental health, drug abuse services and public health workers represented by Engineers and Scientists of California Local 20.

The union said its members are paid significantly less than health services workers in surrounding counties.

“We believe that we can’t move any further,” said Lis Fiekowsky, a Local 20 representative. “We’re not authorized by the membership to settle without (pay) equity increases.”

The 5 percent yearly wage increase would cost the county between $350,000 and $400,000, according to union and county estimates.

Fiekowsky said the union has requested an “impasse meeting” with county negotiators as a last attempt to resolve differences. Despite the logjam, the county intends to keep working with the union toward a contract resolution, Christina Cramer, the county’s human resources director, said in an email.

The two sides have had 18 bargaining sessions since late March, with salary increases being the major sticking point. The union’s two-year contract expired in March.

Citing ongoing financial uncertainty after last year’s wildfires, county officials want Local 20 workers to put off for a year major changes to their labor contract, including pay increases.

The county offered to pay the health union workers lump-sum payments of $2,681, but union leaders said that’s not enough and demanded an increase in base salaries.

The stalled talks affect physical therapists, case managers, alcohol and drug counselors, nutritionists, health information specialists and microbiologists.

Union leaders contend the county has enough money for a wage increase and is merely using last year’s devastating fires as a way to avoid paying more competitive salaries.

“A lot of us feel as though we are serving the children at work at the cost of our children at home,” said Chris Dunia, an occupational therapist who works with children who suffer from orthopedic or neurological disorders.

Dunia, who is part of Local 20’s bargaining team, said she’s one of the ?25 percent of health services union members who did not get a base salary increase under the union’s previous contract. Union members who got a pay hike two years ago included public health nurses, therapists and environmental health specialists.

“The county desires to provide salary and benefits packages that are of equivalent cost and value for the respective bargaining organizations,” Cramer said in an email.

A one-year contract extension for the health services workers’ union would give the county more time to get a better understanding of its financial outlook, Cramer said.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza?@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @renofish.