More than 90 employees of the City of Hayward turned out for a contract action at a meeting of the city council on May 8. The large turnout — fully 1/4 of the chapter’s members — was thanks to a strong mobilization effort by the bargaining team and contract action team (CAT) at the worksites.

For the past two years, at the request of the city council, employees in the maintenance and clerical divisions accepted no pay increase to help the city out financially. Now, according to a salary survey commissioned by the city and SEIU, Hayward employees receive an average of 12 percent less than the average pay for the same work in other cities. Some earn as much as 20 percent less!

“They came to us two years ago. Now we’re coming to them. We need to let them know we’re not going to roll over this time,” said Gilbert Hesia, a utilities worker and vice president of the chapter’s maintenance division, to his co-workers before they entered the council chambers.

Hesia and 911 dispatcher Esther Jobrack read statements to the council and were greeted and then followed by thunderous applause from fellow members, who filled much of the meeting room.

Laterals who visit the call center “tell us they don’t want to work as hard as our 911 team does for the pay we offer,” Jobrack told council members. “We took no raises to help keep things stable. But now we have fallen so far behind we can’t keep our quality people. We can’t recruit new ones.”

Council members were clearly impressed by the strong showing. “We’ll be back!” someone shouted as the union members left the room.

PICTURED: 911 dispatcher Esther Jobrack