The Hayward Democratic Club met last Friday night to discuss the recent budget cuts on SEIU Local 1021 workers, in hopes of coming to an agreement on their labor contract with the city.

“We just had a general meeting where we’re trying to get the consensus of folks, we’re going to be meeting with the union, we’re going to come up with some game plans, but our whole thing is that we want to get back to the table, we want to keep the citizens happy and the services going, and continue to do what we’ve been doing over here,” said Gilbert Hesia, president of the Maintenance Chapter of the SEIU.

Tuesday Feb. 18 the Hayward City Council unanimously voted to impose a one-year contract enforcing five percent pay cuts on nearly three hundred union clerical and maintenance workers. The cuts made will affect city employees such as maintenance workers, clerical staff and library assistants.

“The city of Hayward, like many other California cities, has been dramatically impacted by the great recession of the past few years,” Assistant City Manager Kelly McAdoo wrote in a rebuttal to a fact-finding panel report that was released by the city Feb. 14.

“The city council, executive staff, and city negotiating team have worked diligently since 2010 to structurally reset the City’s General Fund and Enterprise Fund operating budgets in order to provide a sustainable future for city operations, project benefits for employees, and to ensure the continuation of valued services to the Hayward community,” she writes.

Councilmember Barbara Halliday said a cut needed to be made to cover Hayward’s long-term finances. The city has $394 million in unfunded pension and benefit costs plus $500 million in capital needs over the next decade, according to an article this month in the Daily Review.

“Last Tuesday night [Feb. 18] was probably the worst night I have ever experienced in my last ten years on the city council,” Halliday said. “You have to know that the budget numbers we’ve been looking at are scary and at some point you have to face a tough decision.”

The SEIU Local 1021 members already gave up an equivalent of 12 percent pay concessions in 2013 and told the council that they could not take any further cuts in the Feb. 18 meeting.

“We’re the lowest paid frontline workers, we’ve had lots of cuts over the years and our departments are really short of staff,” Hesia said at the meeting on Friday.
Hesia looked back on his experience working in the water department. “When I started in 1999 we had about 25 guys and 10-15 thousand total services. We still have just about that many guys but we have over 30,000 services to maintain and make sure things are still flowing properly.”

The union and the city council have not met at the bargaining table since last July and have been at an impasse since then; but both sides hope they can meet again to present their issues and come to a mutual agreement.

“I’m encouraged that we will get back to the table,” Hesia said. “I think there are some conversations that are going, there are some things that are hopefully going to get us communicating, and to start to have some dialogue where we can start sharing ideas.”