Court Clerks Vote to End Strike

Santa Clara County court workers voted Sunday to end a strike that halted all but essential services at South Bay courthouses for nearly two weeks.

The walkout by more than 300 members of the Superior Court Professional Employees Association marked the county’s first court strike in 14 years. Union officials demanded a raise for employees who had reportedly gone eight years without one.

On Sunday, after striking for eight workdays, the union voted to approve a contract that carries it through to February 2018. Click here to read the agreement.

Monday morning, the county’s 11 superior courthouses resumed operations just as the twelfth and newest building—a $208 million facility on North First Street in San Jose—marked its grand opening.

Workers previously rejected a one-year, 5-percent pay raise because they wanted to see a wage bump in the second year. The administration’s latest offer will give employees most of the previously negotiated raises immediately, the rest in November and a tentative second-year raise of 2.5 percent.

“We are pleased that a mutually agreeable resolution has been achieved,” the court said in a written statement Monday. “The court is eager to move forward together and welcomes the returning of employees … and the resuming of our regular operations.”

Labor leaders collected more than $44,000 during the walkout through a GoFundMe.com fundraiser, which they plan to disburse to union members.

Jennifer Wadsworth is the former news editor for San Jose Inside and Metro Silicon Valley. Follow her on Twitter at @jennwadsworth.

2 Comments

  1. Ask anyone on Social Security what the cost of living index is. This year folks on SS got a zero percent raise.

    So the taxpayers get shafted again. Why? Because negotiators purportedly representing the public aren’t digging into their own wallets to pay this “cost of living” expense. Instead, they’re digging into our wallets… again.

    But I’m only guessing, because there isn’t one word about the bureaucrats who hand out our money. I’d like to know why they don’t just tie in pay raises to the COL index. That would end these pay disputes, where the public is always caught in the middle.

  2. Even in years where SS recipients–who have paid into it–get a zero COLA, Congress votes itself a raise and expands its staff budgets. Congress is populated mostly by parasites, living very well off the people; and many of them, mostly Democrats, disingenuously decry income inequality.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *