{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"KZYX News","title":"\"The county hasn't done their homework:\" union not buying poverty claims","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":388,"description":"June 9, 2022 — Union members rallied outside the Board of Supervisors chambers during the second day of budget hearings Wednesday. The county is in negotiations with all its bargaining units, and the largest, SEIU Local 1021, says that on Monday, the county offered them a zero percent cost of living allowance increase, or COLA.\r\nNegotiator Jackie Otis, a social worker in adult and aging services, let supporters know that they were up against a bad precedent, when county workers took a 12% pay cut in 2010. “Everybody needs to be willing to fight,” she told the crowd of fifty or sixty purple-shirted members. “The problem is, the county knows from our actions before that we laid down and let that 12% salary reduction happen. They want to increase our premiums on our already overpriced and in-the-hole health insurance, ridiculous health insurance that we have. We’ve got to stop this.”\r\nOne of the budget holes is a multi-million dollar deficit in the health plan, which union president Julie Beardsley says is the result of what she calls a bad management decision five years ago. “I don’t know if people remember, but in 2017 and 2018, the county gave all the employees a holiday on paying their healthcare costs, and the county decided it would be a good idea if they took a holiday, too,” she recalled. “So consequently, we’re in this hole. I don’t think our employees should be penalized for mistakes that have been made in the past. And the county has been stalling on looking into new plans. Obviously, Adventist has kind of a monopoly here in the county, and they can charge whatever they want, but we need to look at new plans.”\r\nLief Farr, in county information services, is part of the SEIU bargaining team. He also cited historical decisions, among a number of other concerns. “The county hasn’t done their homework,” he said. “They haven’t put out the necessary budget reports. And so when they express this concern that we’re not taking what they say seriously, that they...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/xZpAumwbhFUpJUYcwaQ1-q6snzOyqAm13l7cW6AWPCM/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9mMzkz/NjAwNjc2OWMyZmFk/YWY2YTdmYjI5M2Mz/YWMxNy5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}