Strikers, Union Activists Halt Board Of Supervisors Meeting

Union activists today disrupted the Riverside County Board of Supervisors' meeting -- bringing it to a halt at one point -- and demanded that the county return to the bargaining table to work out a "fair and equitable contract" for several thousand classified employees.

"You don't just turn around and impose something on a group of workers," Linda Dent, vice president of Service Employees International Union Local 721, told the board. "You have to work together.

"You don't know the meaning of togetherness. You're not respecting workers here at all. I don't know how you sleep at night. You guys have to get your act together and come back to the table and do the right thing."

Dent and several thousand fellow SEIU members converged on the County Administrative Center to protest the board's imposition last month of a contract requiring them to pay into their own pension plans -- effectively cutting their salaries, the workers say. (Watch attached Jan. 20 video of SEIU members at the Riverside County Regional Medical Center serve strike notice to hospital management.)

The one-day work stoppage by the nearly 6,000-strong SEIU Local 721 began an hour before the board's regular Tuesday meeting got under way, with workers chanting, marching and waving signs immediately outside the administration building.

When the meeting started, SEIU members, all clad in purple T-shirts, flooded the board chamber and began chanting, prompting board Chairman John Tavaglione to suspend proceedings and order deputies to clear the space.

Twenty minutes later, he gaveled the meeting back to order.

"We ask all of you to keep orderly," Tavaglione said. "We understand you need to do what you need to do. But we have to run an orderly meeting. If you get out of hand, the deputies are going to remove you."

The board sped through its policy agenda and then opened the meeting to public comments, giving SEIU members an opportunity to speak.

"I don't think imposing a contract serves you or serves our members," said SEIU Local 721 President Bob Schoonover. "We've worked together before to make deals in difficult times. Why don't we go to mediation to find out how much money the county actually has?

"Some people in this county are getting raises and better benefits. If we're really in a financial crisis, it really does have to be shared sacrifice, not just for a portion of the county workforce," Schoonover said. "You have to partner with us to get through this crisis. You talk about being respectful and polite. Our members would like to be. But they don't always feel it across the bargaining table."

One demonstrator thanked the board for its decision to impose.

"You have strengthened us like no one else could have," she said.

Another protester shouted at the supervisors, accusing them of acting in bad faith and demanding to know whether they would "make a commitment to negotiate a fair and equitable contract."

"You want to sit there and scream or you want me to respond?" asked Tavaglione. "We've held 37 bargaining sessions and could not reach an agreement. This board would like to reach a fair and equitable agreement."

When the woman asked whether negotiations could resume today, the chairman did not reply.

Union members were expected to remain outside the administration building until 6 p.m. The strikers include licensed vocational nurses, social workers, 911 dispatchers, accountants, clerks and other classified employees.