Healthcare agency settles with union
Agreement ends seven-month dispute
By Michelle Knight knight@theacorn.com

ON THE LINE- Union-represented employees of Tri-Counties Regional Center picket in front of the agency's Oxnard office on April 30 in protest of a seven-month stall in salary negotiations. The union had asked for 3 percent to 5 percent more for its members while Tri-Counties had offered a 1.4 percent increase.

Tri-Counties Regional Center agreed last week to an undisclosed pay raise for more than 200 union workers in three counties, potentially settling a sevenmonth dispute that included harassment charges.

Citing the need for union member approval first, neither side would disclose on Monday the amount reached in a May 2 tentative agreement that increases pay for 230 union-represented service coordinators, psychologists, physicians and office workers at six offices from San Luis Obispo to Simi Valley.

Workers are expected to vote on the agreement this week.

"We're not where we want to be, but we're close," said Patricia Cortez, Service Employees International Union negotiator. "We're trying to work with management, and we're trying to have a collaborative relationship."

Mike Nagel, TriCounties' director of human resources, said, "We're hopeful the union will accept the economic realities we face."

The nonprofit TriCounties Regional Center, one of 21 such agencies throughout the state, coordinates a range of lifelong services and support for more than 10,000 children and adults with developmental disabilities in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

The four-year contract between the agency and union allows for annual renegotiations on salary only. The contract expires December 2009.

Since October, the union has been asking for a 3 percent to 5 percent raise for its members. Until last week, Tri-Counties management stuck to its offer of 1.4 percent.

Cortez, a service coordinator in Oxnard, said she thinks the picketing and public information sessions on April 19 and 30 at all six TriCounties offices encouraged management to make a new offer.

"They were getting their story out there," Cortez said of the more than 200 workers on the lunchtime picket line.

Days before both sides reached the tentative agreement, the union filed a charge of unfair labor practice with the National Labor Relations Board against TriCounties. The complaint centered on management requiring an employee to remove a union poster from their work area.

The union said it will withdraw the complaint if members approve the new wage agreement.

SEIU had also contended low wages, last raised in 2002, and increased job demands have caused a high employee turnover rate at Tri-Counties.

Nagel said the agency's employee turnover rate is 10 percent to 15 percent, "considered low" in any industry.

"History has shown that turnover at Tri-Counties Regional is not a concern," he said.

Cortez, however, said the union believes the rate is higher.

"We're not really sure of the statistics but we know nine-year veterans, 11year veterans, are expressing discontent and are leaving," Cortez said.

It is hoped the new raise will help reverse the trend, she added.