CITY OF BERKELEY WORKERS VOTE TO AUTHORIZE STRIKE
Workers are prepared to strike after being denied a fair contract for months
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BERKELEY, CA – The membership of Community Services Unit and Part-time Recreation Leaders Association (CSU/PTRLA) Chapter of Berkeley SEIU 1021 have voted overwhelmingly at 93% to authorize a strike if necessary to secure a fair contract.
SEIU 1021 is the largest union in the City and its workers keep the City of Berkeley running by providing accessible, safe, healthy, environmentally sustainable and culturally-rich municipal services. CSU/PTRLA members work across all major departments including: the Auditor’s Office, Library, Police Department, City Manager’s Office, Finance, Fire Department, Health Housing and Community Services, Information Technology, Mayor and Council, Parks, Recreation and Waterfront, Public Works, and the Rent Board.
Workers say the City has refused to bargain in good faith over pressing recruitment and staff retention issues that impact city services and keeping up with historic inflation. Since 2012, workers’ cost of living adjustments are 26% behind inflation as measured by the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA, Consumer Price Index (CPI) for All Urban Consumers and nearly 40% behind the Alameda County Area Median Income (AMI).
The Berkeley City Council and Mayor indexed their own cost of living adjustments to inflation as part of a ballot measure approved by voters in 2020. In contrast, the City has offered workers adjustments over three years that would put workers even further behind. City workers are seeking basic protections that ensure that their salaries keep up with the cost of basic goods and services such as groceries and rent.
The chapter-wide strike vote follows the first strike by a group of workers in the chapter’s history, and possibly the first at the City of Berkeley. Conducted in August, the Recreation Activity Leaders at the City’s beloved Berkeley Day Camp, among the lowest paid workers in City services, held a successful 2 day strike bringing attention to the issues hurting recruitment, retention and morale.
Strike votes have been rare among city workers and even more rare is for workers to be without a contract this many months past expiration. The vote highlights that the City, its management and political leaders are failing to bargain in good faith. Approximately 700 workers–nearly half the City’s workforce–have been working without a union contract since June 26. For seven months workers have attempted to reach a contract with the City and avoid a strike. However, the City used delay tactics to lock out its own workers from open and transparent negotiations for months. In 2021, workers demanded and the City agreed to meet openly so that both the public and workers could observe, but city management has since decided to hide from the community in 2024, insisting on closed door negotiations. As a result, both workers and the community are excluded from labor negotiations that impact workers’ ability to afford the increasing costs of living or to provide critical services.
CSU/PTRLA bargaining team member and teen services library specialist Christina Rea said “We’re here for the community and the last thing we want to do is to have to go on a strike. But we deserve the same basic dignity afforded to Mayor Arreguín and Council: we are merely asking to keep up with inflation, otherwise every year we can afford less and less with our paychecks. Residents deserve a healthy workforce who can in turn provide quality services. If the City isn’t willing to do the right thing, then we will have to stand up for what’s fair to workers and the community.”
The vote also occurs as the City’s Parks and Recreation Department and Library go to voters to seek parcel taxes increases that are indexed to inflation to fund programs run by CSU/PTRLA workers.
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