Hollister
– Many city employees haven’t gotten a raise in four years, and
they aren’t happy about it.
Hollister – Many city employees haven’t gotten a raise in four years, and they aren’t happy about it.
On Monday, several staffers belonging to the city union told Hollister City Council members that officials need to negotiate pay increases.
“All I’m asking is that you guys consider a fair contract for the employees who have remained committed to this community,” recreation coordinator Tina Garza said.
Despite being a single mother, Garza said she sometimes works 10- or 12-hour shifts to handle the additional workload caused by recent staffing cuts.
Employees’ last cost-of-living wage adjustment came in 2003, said Frank Garden, a spokesman for Service Employees International Union Local 521. The union voluntarily passed on a contracted wage increase in 2004 to help with the city’s budget problems, Garden noted.
Before the meeting, Councilman Doug Emerson said he sympathizes with the workers’ complaints.
“Their concerns are legitimate,” Emerson said. “Anybody who works three years in a job without a salary increase would start looking somewhere else.”
SEIU represents all of the city’s employees except for the police department, the fire department and managers.
Workers’ contract expired in July 2006, but the union and the city still haven’t reached an agreement, Garden said. City Manager Clint Quilter said it’s difficult for Hollister to find extra funds in the midst of its current budget problems.
“The financial situation is what it is,” he said.
He added that the city’s management-level staff hasn’t received any raises, either.
Budget deficits led Hollister to cut services and staff in 2004, then again in 2007. Quilter previously told the Free Lance that the most recent cuts eliminated 12 full-time positions. Those positions were either already vacant or would have become vacant shortly, he said.
Garden said he’s heard the city’s arguments, but he said Hollister needs to “open the books” and prove that it’s as cash-strapped as Quilter claims.
“They kind of want us to take their word for it,” Garden said.
Quilter and union representatives plan to meet for further discussions Thursday. Garden said the union hasn’t decided what to do if its concerns are not addressed.
