Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Employee group refuses contract offer from town in negotiations

Pay raises become a bone of contention for members

Job security also demanded

By Clarence Cromwell

Just before negotiations between Los Gatos and the 52-member Town Employees Association dragged into a fourth month, the association refused a contract that delayed pay raises until next year.

Association members, who have worked without a contract since June 30, voted down the town's offer the week of July 30. Workers didn't want to wait a year to receive a raise smaller than what the police officers got when they last bargained, and they don't want to pay higher health-insurance costs, said Kevin Flavia, the association's negotiator and Los Gatos' chief engineering inspector.

Town employees also would like assurance their jobs won't disappear in future budget-balancing sessions, Flavia said.

The association is one of four that bargains with the town. Flavia described association members as the "small cogs" of the town: police dispatchers, community service officers, library workers, the ranger and clerical employees.

Flavia said employees frowned at a proposed two-year contract that offered no raise the first year and a 4 percent raise the second year.

"The bottom line is that over the last few years--at least with TEA--our raises haven't kept up with inflation," Flavia said.Some employees complained that the Police Officers Association will get a raise this year, although Town Employees Association members won't, Flavia said. The town agreed to give police officers raises totaling 7 percent over their two-year contract. Police got a 3 percent raise during the last budget year and a 4 percent raise on July 1, the beginning of the current budget year.

"If we're in a tough position financially, then everyone should be biting the bullet," Flavia said.

Assistant Town Manager Jim Piper responded that the police raise was negotiated in 1993, before the town's coffers got too low for raises. All other town employees, Piper said, get the same deal as the employees' association: no raise this year.

Budget cuts concern many association members, Flavia said. Over the past few years, the town dismantled the Engineering Department, cut away police jobs and eliminated one of two rangers.

Employees rarely reject a new contract, Flavia said. The town hired him six years ago, and this is the first time he's seen it happen, he said.

Association members talked again about the contract at a meeting Aug. 14. Now Flavia plans to haggle some more with town negotiators, including Assistant Town Manager Jim Piper, on Aug. 22.

Piper said the he won't comment on labor negotiations because the town and association agree under the contract to keep talks confidential. He did say that the town wants to make a fair deal with the disgruntled workers.

When the employees association signs a contract, the town will begin bargaining with a union that represents other town workers, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.