Kern County CA to Impose Contract on Unions

Kern County to Impose Contract on Public Unions

Please consider County-union mediation fails

Kern County government and its largest union have failed to reach an agreement during contract mediation, setting up a final decision by county supervisors about how to handle negotiations with thousands of their employees.

Negotiators with the Service Employees International Union, Local 521 notified union members Thursday that the mediation process had broken down and they should expect supervisors to impose the contract they want.

That contract does two things -- makes all employees in the union pay 20 percent of their health-care premiums and require thousands of workers who currently do not pay into to their pensions to begin making contributions from each paycheck.

Regina Kane, president of the Kern County chapter of SEIU 521, said supervisors have followed a firm course toward this date, failing to budge an inch when the unions proposed other ways to cut costs and save money that supervisors argued was critical to balance county budgets.

Kane said her members -- especially the most modest workers who handle the county's front-line public services -- will be devastated by the pay reductions.

"Many of our employees will be losing cars and losing homes," she said.

She said many of the county employees who are eligible for retirement will seize the opportunity and leave. Even if, Kane said, some of those jobs are filled, it will take months to bring new workers on board and train them.

"The public service system will be overloaded," she said.

A "Start"

I commend Kern County. Standing up to the unions is a start. However, 50% to their health-care costs would be a better start, and I do not see anything being done about pension benefits.

Nonetheless, not bargaining with unions is the correct approach. I suggest a 1 year imposition then next year attacking pension benefits.

Regina Kane whines "many of the county employees who are eligible for retirement will seize the opportunity and leave".

To that I say hooray! Let's hope 100% of them leave. New employees should be put into defined contribution plans. Better yet, the county should simply outsource every job and be done with it.

The correct way to deal with the SEIU is to not deal with them at all.

Kern County Map



Now, if only Los Angeles or Orange County would do the same thing. It is time for serious hardball. Complete elimination of every union should be the goal.