On Dec, 17, the City of Fresno Professional Employees Association (CFPEA), representing 435 supervisors in all City departments as well as professional positions in the City, such as architects, legal secretaries, paralegals, licensed professional engineers, accountants and other professionals, began a two-day strike against the City, establishing a picket line in front of City Hall. They were joined in a solidarity strike by members of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents the bus drivers for the City of Fresno. After being on strike for just one day, the City agreed to resume negotiations and a tentative agreement was reached on Dec. 18.
“It’s not an unfair labor practice strike, but it’s definitely on,” said Jesse Gonzalez, CFPEA president. “It’s a two-day strike.
“We’re out here because we are at an impasse [deadlock] with the City of Fresno. After a year of negotiating, we ended up having to declare an impasse.
“It’s been a year without a contract at the end of this month, and my members decided that we needed to take action because the offers that were coming from the City we just didn’t think are fair enough and there are no [contract negotiations] meetings scheduled. Our last meeting was in November.”
Among the outstanding issues “is the cost of living,” says Gonzalez. “With rising grocery prices and housing costs, we aren’t keeping up. The [last salary increase] my members received was back in June of last year, [and] it was only 3%.
“Currently, the City is offering a 2% increase. We’re requesting a 3% raise. The current CPI is 2.7%, and we are not keeping up [with inflation]. Rent in Fresno has gone up by 10% this past year. Everything’s getting out of control, and we’re just trying to stay evenly paced.”
(Coincidentally, Fresno City Council members earned $92,000 starting in January 2023 and $101,200 from January 2024 and will earn $111,320 beginning in January 2025. From January 2023 to January 2025, Council members will have given themselves a 39% raise.)
Gonzalez said that another outstanding issue is the amount of calls and e-mails from work on their days off. City departments often contact employees regarding City business at home. Union members are demanding at least one guaranteed day off that would prohibit phone calls and e-mails to employees from the City on that day.
Another issue is the length of the contract; the union is seeking a two-year contract, as has been the past practice. The City wants a one-year contract. Maintaining the current retirement plan is also an important issue.
To get the City back to the bargaining table, Gonzalez says that “more of these types of actions” will be necessary.
“Hopefully, [actions like this] will give the City enough realization of how important my members are to the way the City operates,” notes Gonzalez. “Our members support the police department, [the] fire department and all city departments. We are vital to City operations.
“The City is saying they have a budget deficit of $47 million. Is it a budget problem or is it a spending plan problem? We need to look at some of these departments that are well-funded, overfunded I’d say, like the Police Department and other departments that are considered ‘enterprise’ departments.
“Also, for a $2 billion budget, [a $47 million deficit] is not really a lot. Now, the City has to meet its contractual obligations and resume negotiations now.”
Details of the pending tentative agreement will not be released until union members can consider it and vote to ratify. If ratified, the Fresno City Council is expected to approve the deal. The provisions of the agreement are retroactive to Jan. 1, 2024.
