Striking attorneys agree to ‘cease-fire’ with Sacramento County, go back to work until Tuesday
Striking Sacramento County prosecutors and public defenders went back to work on Friday in what their union is calling a “pause” in the work action so that the two sides can continue negotiations on a new contract.
Matt Chisholm, president of the Sacramento County Attorneys Association, said Friday the pause went into effect at noon. It comes two weeks into a strike by hundreds of lawyers who work for Sacramento County. If an agreement is not reached by Tuesday morning, Chisholm said the strike would resume.
“The county and the union have agreed to a pause, and that is for both sides to hopefully have a chance to exchange offers and end this labor action,” Chisholm said.
County spokeswoman Kim Nava confirmed that the work action had been stopped.
“The county is pleased to welcome our attorneys back to work and is committed to engaging in constructive discussions to address the issues at hand,” she said. “This step marks a positive development, and we look forward to working collaboratively with SCAA to achieve a mutually beneficial resolution.”
About half of the roughly 400 lawyers in the union have walked picket lines since the strike began Aug. 26 in protest of a wage offer from the county that they said was misleading and small. The offer, of a 14.5% increase over three years, included cost of living raises that the union said were insufficient to match inflation, and tied another increase to a reduction in some retirement benefits.
The union is asking for an annual increase of 5.5% that includes a year of back pay.
Also this week, the union filed an unfair labor practices complaint against the county, saying negotiators failed to consider the results of a fact-finding report by the Public Employee Relations Board that supported some of the union’s demands, including the 5.5% increase in so-called equity pay, separate from cost of living increases.
The county acknowledged receiving the complaint, but did not comment on it.
John Stoller, a spokesman for the union who is a supervising assistant public defender, referred to the pause as a “cease-fire,” and said it did not indicate that the work action had been settled.
This story was originally published September 6, 2024 at 3:33 PM.
