Dear OCEA member, 

The OCEA negotiations team met with the County on Wednesday, June 7, for our eighth formal negotiations session. You can read our last recap here. 

Last week’s session was productive as OCEA and the County came to multiple tentative agreements. These included our proposal to bring back 2-step merit increases for workers who “meet expectations” and are not topped out, as well as the County withdrawing concessionary proposals.  

This week’s session lasted over 10 hours and led to much needed dialogue on the remaining proposals. OCEA and the County exchanged multiple proposals during our all-day session. During proposal exchanges the County made positive movement on wages, however there is still work to do. 

In another positive development, the County indicated interest in our proposal to raise the pay for workers assigned to the jail whose classification is not usually assigned to the jail (Jail Salary Supplement Pay).  

As it stands, there are only a few issues remaining—the most critical being wages. 

Remember, the OCEA negotiations team brings market data, inflationary data, and workplace efficiencies, to the table when we make our wage proposal. 

We continue to make it clear that OCEA members need meaningful raises!  

The OCEA negotiations team will meet with the County again Monday, June 12, for an additional negotiating session. We are also scheduled to meet again Wednesday, June 14. Those meetings will center on the few remaining issues and hopefully bring us within striking distance of an agreement.  

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER—make sure your co-workers are receiving OCEA emails and know what's happening in negotiations, too! Things are moving fast and the next few weeks will be CRITICAL.  

Visit the OCEA Negotiations page for the most updated information and additional training materials regarding 2023 County Negotiations. 

In Solidarity, 

Team OCEA