Solano County Public Service Workers Launch 2-Day Strike

Thousands of Solano County workers launched a two-day strike Tuesday, after monthslong negotiations have yielded little progress on new labor agreements.

About 2,000 employees who walked off the job include social workers, engineers and administrative staff working under contracts that lapsed in October. They’re asking for higher wages and better benefits to ease what they say is a recruitment and retention crisis that’s harming both employees and residents in Solano County.

Outside a county social services building in Fairfield on Tuesday morning, workers chanted and walked the picket lines. Among them was Richard Livingston Jr., a supervisor at Solano County Older and Disabled Adult Services who has worked for the county for 26 years.

While he’s been through contract fights before, Livingston noted that four unions have come together this time around.

“So you have workers, supervisors, managers; you have physicians; you have custodial; you have professional, technical; all these folks are here together,” Livingston said.

“If you take care of the workers, the people that take care of the people, you’re taking care of the people,” he continued. “There’s a lot of people who work here in Solano County who said they can’t afford to live here now.”

Linda Cheesman, a supervisor in Solano County’s General Services department, said in a statement that workers are stretched thin and services are delayed because of hundreds of vacant positions, adding that the county’s employees are under “serious strain.”

“County workers want to help build a Solano for all, but we need the county to meet us with a fair and equitable contract so we can attract and retain the staff our community relies on,” she continued.

The workers represented by Service Employees International Union Local 1021, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 21, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 39 and Union of American Physicians and Dentists are bargaining separate contracts, but social worker Elizabeth Harrison said many of their core demands are the same: better retention rates and recruitment efforts to ease chronic understaffing in county departments.

“The bottom-line to that is … we’re talking about having a community that deserves fully staffed, safe and reliable public services,” Harrison, who is a member of SEIU Local 1021, said. “If we cannot get retention and recruitment under control, then what we have is as many people come in the front door to be hired as people go out the back door. They leave.”

Harrison, who has been an adult protective services social worker in the county for 13 years, said that vacant positions in her department means she and other employees have unmanageable caseloads and rising rates of burnout, while some of their clients experience long wait times for care.

“When we have positions like mine, or [in] public works or agriculture, the chronic understaffing puts all of us at risk,” she told KQED. “People have growing safety concerns for the workers and the public.”

The unions are asking for higher wages and better benefit coverage to encourage people to come to work for the county, and to stay for longer periods.

“It’s not primarily the wages and the benefits, but those things play a part in retention and recruitment which then plays a part in having high quality public services. It all ties together,” Harrison told KQED.

Tazamisha Alexander, a benefits eligibility specialist for the county and a member of her union’s negotiating team, said Tuesday on the picket line that talks with the county have been difficult.

“The county hasn’t really negotiated anything,” Alexander said. “The previous contract, there was a back-and-forth. We talked about things. That’s why we didn’t have to go out. This time around, it’s just been a bunch of no.”

The county said it’s offered a proposal that includes salary increases, higher insurance contributions and additional benefits totalling over $90 million, and is weighing the union’s requests with its current fiscal outlook and “ongoing budget pressures.” In negotiations, officials have emphasized the “need to balance fair compensation with the County’s responsibility to maintain essential services and fiscal sustainability for the community,” the county said.

Megan Richards, a management analyst in the Solano County Administrator’s Office, said the county is anticipating possible cost increases to run federal programs like Medicare or CalFresh, which are implementing new work requirements and other qualification restrictions and could shift additional administrative tasks to the county level. She also said Solano faces uncertainty in state and federal budget plans.

The strike that began Tuesday is directly over the county’s approach to bargaining after the unions jointly filed unfair labor practices charges with the state over the issue in December.

“You go into a negotiation and you expect to have some movement back and forth, some real talks and real negotiations, but they’ve stalled,” Harrison said. “For lack of better words, it’s a waste of time.”

Workers formed strike lines beginning at 7 a.m. Tuesday outside both the county’s Health and Social Services and administrative building in Fairfield, with others planned near county worksites in Vallejo, Vacaville and Cordelia.

The action was expected to have rippling impacts on county services Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Department of Health and Human Services said most of its divisions will be open for emergency response, but appointments will be rescheduled, and some services will be delayed.

Lynch Canyon Open Space and Patwino Worrtla Kodoi Dihi Open Space will both be closed, while other beaches and county parks remain open. The Fairfield Civic Center Library will remain open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., while other locations will be closed.

However, other services could still be delayed, and closures could occur, the county said.

Contract negotiations are ongoing, and the parties could return to the bargaining table at any time.

“What we’re looking to do is make sure that we have real movement and real respect at the bargaining table, and we have not experienced that from our employer here at Solano County,” said Harrison.

KQED’s Daisy Nguyen contributed to this report.