Hayward city workers from SEIU Local 1021 will finish a three-day Unfair Labor Practice strike today; a strike called by the union in response to stalled contract negotiations that began late last year.

More than 200 city employees, including city maintenance workers, clerical staff, and library assistants, launched the strike on Tuesday. The union has filed nearly a dozen Unfair Labor Practice reports, or violations against the bargaining rules, with the city.

“At this particular time they have walked away from the table and have refused to meet us,” said Daryl Lockhart, union member and senior utility leader in the water department. “So, they have declared an impasse. Basically, our backs are against the wall and that’s why we are here today.”

Workers have been negotiating without contracts since April 30. The city declared an impasse, or deadlock on July 26, said Anna Bakalis, a spokesperson for the union. “They haven’t moved one inch from their original position on top of workers who have lost 12 percent,” Bakalis said.

The city demanded an additional 5 percent take-home pay cut in which the workers would lose roughly $10-$12,000 annually, said Lockhart, who was also a Strike Captain on Tuesday.

“Yearly out of our wages, it’s a reduction of $7-$9,000, and they are asking for another five percent, which is an additional $3-$4,000. So you’re looking at $10-$12,000 decrease in wages,” said Lockhart giving rough estimates of affected workers.

Yet, the city claims the strike is illegal, filing two complaints with California Public Employee Relations Board against the union on August 6 and 12.

The city claims the union has bargained in “bad faith,” according to the city press release.

Assistant City Manager Kelly McAdoo said the city has remained open to negotiations and are asking the union to forgo raises for an additional two years on top of the current five years enacted in 2010.

“We’ve been working with all of our bargaining groups to design concession packages that closed the city’s deficit within the past few years,” McAdoo. She added the fire fighters and managers have currently closed concessions.

She added that there has been little impact with some workers who have continued working, and replacement workers along with retired employees are filling in for vacant positions.

Although, Linda Reid, president of the Hayward chapter said Nicholas Peraino, a researcher for the union, found that there was extra funding for the union, but was unable to produce those numbers.

Bakalis said essential services such as 911 dispatch, water treatment, and animal control are still working for the city.

On Tuesday, the peaceful protest turned into a hospital visit for SEIU worker Jerry Schilling who was struck by a car. According to the press release, a man in a white truck knocked down the 20-year employee of Hayward striking him more than two times with his car.

Currently, 43 positions have been eliminated, and city workers have given up more than “$4 million in the last contract and over $7 million over the last four years,” according to the union press release.

“We don’t make as much as others but we are already at the point where we can’t dress our families, go out to movies, some are in situations losing their house, cars. They are asking for an additional 5 percent which is at our breaking point; enough is enough,” said Lockhart