REGION 3 BARGAINING UPDATE

November 25, 2019 

The Region met with your Bargaining Team on November 22, 2019 at 10AM in the Stockton Courthouse building to present our proposals which includes and is focused on getting a very substantial wage increase for our members.  R3 Spokesperson, our Bargaining Attorney Laurie Burgess was present along with Janet Hudec, Rosa Trevizo and Joey Tobin. Bargaining Committee Chair Carmen Ramos was not released for Bargaining. A Grievance was filed against San Joaquin County Superior Court, and an Unfair Labor Practice charge will also be filed against the Region. It was a long struggle to get the Region to the table, as your team began requesting dates in August, and provided us with Bargaining dates just recently.  We filed and Unfair Labor practice against the Region for not coming to the table as well, and have filed multiple grievances as the Courts in our Region have not been complying with the imposed MOU on various sections. The non-compliance with the MOU is blatant throughout the counties in Region 3.  The Region has resisted enforcement of the MOU by your elected officers, as it seems our Local did not have a strong presence before, and the courts had a free reign on unilaterally implementing and encouraging practices that should not be taking place.   Since the new Board has taken over the Local, your representatives, Janet Hudec, VP, and Carmen Ramos, Secretary-Treasurer, have issued many Requests of Information which the Region refused to comply with. So far, 3 grievances have been filed in 3 counties, and we intend to continue to stand up to the Court to better working conditions and wages for our members.  The Grievances and Requests for Information have allowed us to obtain evidence supporting our 30% wage increase request. 

The strategy your team has agreed upon does not include wearing red, or having informational picketing. We feel a very aggressive and different approach is needed, as our Courts have ignored our plight of stagnant wages for a long time.  Please make sure you use our R3 Bargaining e mail to ask any questions, and stay tuned for upcoming updates and meeting dates. Our next Bargaining Meeting is on Dec 3, and the Stockton Court Building.  

In Solidarity, your Bargaining Team,

Region 2 and Region 3 Interpreters Workshop

Region Comes Up with Bupkis* 

Oakland (Nov. 22, 2019)__The Courts again showed the contempt in which they hold interpreters, responding to our proposal for a sorely needed raise with a formal proposal for zero this Wednesday.

Furthermore, instead of providing the detailed response our spokesperson Laurie Burgess demanded to the solid arguments backing our proposal for a 30 percent raise to the first step, they insulted our intelligence with a smoke and mirrors array of misleading and faulty analyses of alternative facts that in no way addressed the research we presented at the first session.

Your Region 2 Bargaining Committee had every reason to expect to spend Wednesday responding to a counterproposal, which the unprepared Region really should have produced at the first session in our wage re-opener on Nov. 13. We argued that the increase is the minimum needed to address the problem of attracting new employees and easing the critical interpreter shortage plaguing our courts. 

The Region, however, engaged in a series of shenanigans, first using the Dreamforce Conference in San Francisco as an excuse to unilaterally shift the meeting scheduled for Nov. 20 to a location that was unworkable for our committee. Continuing in the spirit of bad faith, they then chose to cancel the session, only to come back late Tuesday with a last-minute offer to meet in San Francisco for a few hours in the afternoon, after all, to discuss their non-proposal.   

Instead, we spent a productive day Wednesday caucusing in Oakland, working hard to prepare for our next session, which will likely be held in mid-December.

It is not too soon for you to show your support. If you haven’t done so yet, be sure to fill out our survey by November 27, 2019 please (email us for a survey: [email protected] ). We’re still tabulating and will use the results at our next session. Your input is vital to this process, because we are representing you. Be sure to send in pictures of yourselves sporting red on Wednesdays and keep in contact with the mobilizers deployed in all of the Courts about upcoming actions. We also welcome your ideas for slogans and mobilization activities.

Your Bargaining Committee, 

Margaret Layman
Juan Jose Negrete
Shannon Raintree
Kristina Ramsey
Margo Seely