Court Negotiations Update - Aug. 22, 2019
Dear OCEA member,
Last week, OCEA presented our initial proposal to the Court which seeks to provide base-building wage enhancements for all Court workers. Yesterday your bargaining team met for our third round of negotiations where the Court presented OCEA with a comprehensive opening proposal in response. Again, the Court demonstrated an indifference towards the realities OCEA members face every day. We were handed a meager, unacceptable wage proposal and little else.
The Court has repeatedly claimed that they are facing a structural funding shortage that preclude them from making substantive wage proposals. We disagree.
Many of you want to know more about our position on wage increases. Unfortunately, the bargaining team cannot publicly disclose the details of our proposal. Confidentiality protects the integrity of the bargaining process and keeps us in the best possible negotiating position moving forward. We can talk about the economic conditions that underpin the fairness of our proposal - the cost of living in Southern California, settlement patterns of other Courts, benefit costs, and other market factors. Before the wage proposal is submitted, every member of the OCEA bargaining team reaches consensus and moves forward together.
After some additional discussion, the bargaining session ended. The OCEA bargaining team spent the rest of the afternoon analyzing the proposal and strategized on responses to the Court. Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, August 28th. The two sides are far apart, but we are still VERY early in the process.
Over the next two months OCEA and the Court will be meeting most Wednesdays for negotiations. After each session, we will be sending an update via email.
If you want to support the efforts at the bargaining table, please go to www.ocea.org/getinvolved for more information.
In Solidarity,
Charles Barfield, OCEA General Manager
Lead Negotiator
Publication Date: August 22, 2018