Over 400 teamsters across Orange County are headed back out to the picket lines this morning after they shot down a new contract offer from county supervisors.
It ends a pause that lasted just over a week as teamsters say they tried to make a showing of good faith by sending their picketers back to work during negotiations, which ended when supervisors returned with a new offer.
Instead of a 3% raise for one year, supervisors offered a 4% raise – but because teamsters are already several months into their contracted year, the overall raise comes out to slightly over 3%.
Teamster’s Local 952 secretary treasurer Eric Jimenez, who represents all the county government’s teamsters, said that just wasn’t enough for their members, who’ve also been calling for backpay that was missed during the negotiations.
“The Board of Supervisors returned with the same offer we warned them would not pass, and our members overwhelmingly rejected it as it fails to respect the critical work they perform every day,” Jimenez wrote in a Tuesday statement.
During the strike, county leaders publicly tried to minimize the impacts, claiming that landfills were operating as normal before reporting to a state agency that trash processing had been throttled.
Now, picket lines are going back up at the county hall of administration and all three county landfills, where the majority of the county’s teamsters work.
The strike also comes amid dueling labor complaints from the teamsters and the county in front of the California Public Employee Relations Board, with teamsters claiming the county negotiated in bad faith for months while the county claims the teamsters used improper tactics during the strike to disrupt processing at the landfills.
County spokesperson Molly Nichelson said county officials will continue public services.
“The County will continue to execute contingency plans as needed to minimize any service disruptions,” Nichelson said.
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.
