SAN MARTIN
– Both sides of a bitter labor dispute that has crippled the
county’s court system since Monday were back at the bargaining
table trying to hammer out a negotiation this morning following a
court order.
SAN MARTIN – Both sides of a bitter labor dispute that has crippled the county’s court system since Monday were back at the bargaining table trying to hammer out a negotiation this morning following a court order.
San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Joseph Bergeron ordered Tuesday that both sides of the dispute that has left nearly 600 Santa Clara County Superior Court clerical workers on strike were to begin negotiations Tuesday afternoon and continue until an agreement can be settled.
As of 11:30 this morning no settlement had been reached.
“It’s a minute-by-minute process,” said Isobel White, spokeswoman for Local 715 of the Service Employees International Union, which is representing the court workers, “but the fact that we’ve been (at the bargaining table) shows there’s a possibility of movement.”
Courts throughout the county operated haphazardly Tuesday. At facilities across the county managers filled in for clerks and only the 16 of 85 county courtroom reporters ordered by Bergeron Monday to return to work recorded what were ruled as essential trials.
Two of the county’s dozen court facilities were totally shut down – in Santa Clara and the Notre Dame facility – and the San Martin courthouse was functioning way below capacity on the usually busy Tuesday.
More than 90 percent of San Martin’s 30 state-paid employees picketed outside, and only one reporter of the usually three worked the courtrooms.
The absence of the court reporters, who are specially trained for up to six years to record court proceedings – typing up to 200 words per minute on specialized machines, has created a large backlog in the entire county court system.
Court officials asked Burgeron to force 59 court reporters, clerks, judges’ assistants and other staffers back to work Monday, but the judge only ordered 13 reporters back to work – extending that order to 16 reporters for Wednesday’s court calendar.
“We are pleased because they are realizing how important these workers are to the justice system and public safety,” White said.
Because court employees are required security clearance, replacement workers cannot easily be hired to cross the picket lines, and the highly-trained reporters are almost impossible to replace.
The disagreement between the employees and the court centers largely on salary. Local 715 is asking for a 6 percent annual raise for court workers, while Superior Court officials are offering 2.5 percent in the first year of a three-year contract that would contain no raises after the first year.
Tensions began to boil when the court workers’ contract expired Oct. 28 and the 650 union members voted by a 93 percent margin to reject the courts’ new contract offer. Numerous negotiation attempts since then have failed, leading the court workers to take up the picket line Monday.
A major barrier in the contract dispute resolves around a change in law three years ago in which Superior Court employees started being funded by the state, not the county. With the dismal state of the California budget, officials already have cut Superior Court jobs in several counties, and the courts and court workers’ unions in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties recently agreed on new contracts on the eve of potential strikes.
For information about court dates during the strike go to claraweb.co.santa-clara.ca.us/sct/. The Superior Court has also set up a hotline at 408-299-2555 for updates on the labor situation, or for jury duty information call 277-0720.
