Today your bargaining team met with the County. We believed that the County was going to give a counter proposal on wages, and we were prepared to counter to keep the ball moving. Instead, the County asked the team to list the bargaining priorities so that the County could concentrate on those areas in hopes of getting the contract done by mid-June.  We got a song and dance about the Board of Supervisors not having any July meetings scheduled and if we did not finish early, then it could be a while before seeing the first pay increase. 

We pushed back, saying that if the board chooses to do that, we will insist on retroactive pay. However, we verbally gave the County our priorities. If the County comes with the favorable numbers, these areas could get a contract for us to vote on:
1. COLA’s
2. Longevity
3. Juneteenth as a regular holiday
4. County to pick up 100% of any premium increase in the October open enrollment for the year 2027.   

The team also floated out to the County that if the County wants a 3-year contract, then we would consider using the CPI-U (consumer price index for all urban consumers) for the COLA number each year if the County grants our equities proposal, spread out over the 3 years.

If you remember, the proposal was for all classifications below the median to be brought up to the median. Doing it over 3 years helps with the budget, but also gets workers more money and aids in recruitment and retention.    

Again, these are negotiations and nothing is final until both sides sign the proposals. We will continue to meet with the County every Wednesday until the end of June.

Please watch out for worksite meetings to speak with your bargaining team member or field staff and get additional updates/questions answered or email SJCBargaining2026@seiu1021.org