Hayward City Workers Launch 3-Day Strike Over Contract Negotiations
HAYWARD (CBS SF) -- Hayward city workers went on strike Tuesday after contract negotiations with city officials stalled at the end of July, union and city officials said.
Members of Service Employees International Union Local 1021, which represents about 350 city workers, started their three-day strike Tuesday morning and held rallies at noon and another at 5 p.m., union leaders said.
Union members said that city officials have delayed talks and used unfair bargaining tactics during the past seven months.
Hayward City Workers Launch 3-Day Strike Over Contract Negotiations
On July 26 the city declared an impasse and stopped negotiations.
Union members are calling for resumption of productive talks to settle the labor dispute.
Assistant City Manager Kelly McAdoo said this afternoon "we are disappointed that negotiations have broken down" and that workers have "chosen to engage in the strike."
She said the contract with SEIU workers expired in April.
In the months of contract talks, she said, "we have asked all our bargaining groups to meet concession requirements."
According to city officials, the latest proposal offers SEIU members salary increases in the last three years of a five-year agreement. The workers are also asked to contribute a "minimal level of cost-sharing" to health and retirement benefits.
"SEIU has refused to participate in this long-term plan for the city's financial health," officials said in a statement.
According to city officials, "Hayward has been faced with the dire fiscal challenges that accompanied the recent recession compounded by the rising and unsustainable costs of health care and employee retirement."
Union members picketed Tuesday at three locations throughout the city, including in front of City Hall, located at 777 B St.
According to union members, one worker who walked off the job, Jerry Schilling, a street maintenance worker, was injured when a replacement employee struck him with a truck around 9 a.m. Tuesday morning.
Fire officials would only confirm that someone had been struck by a car at City Hall Tuesday morning but did not provide details about injuries.
City officials said the protester was reportedly struck by a driver trying to enter the City Hall garage to get a building permit.
The SEIU member was taken to Kaiser Permanente Hayward Medical Center where he was treated for minor injuries, officials said.
SEIU 1021 members will continue to provide essential services during the strike including 911 dispatch, animal control, and services at the wastewater treatment plant, according to union leaders.
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