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Not Now, Not Next Week, Not Ever!

The union and management met for round two of negotiations on Tuesday, September 25th at the AOC offices in San Francisco.

From the very beginning it was obvious that the situation in Los Angeles was very much present in the room. Once we began talking about Region 2, Joe Wiley, the court's head negotiator responded orally to our proposal on wages: "Not now, not next week, not ever, will we accept a proposal which would increase our costs by 35%." Even though Wiley's argument may sound reasonable, we must not forget that there is $12,000,000 surplus in the state budget allocated for interpreter services. Furthermore, there is a shortage of certified interpreters in the state courts, we don't have a career path, certified court interpreters earn 37 percent less than federal court interpreters and 2-3 times less than interpreters earn in the private sector.

So far, management has not offered an explanation as to why they refuse to bring those funds to the bargaining table. The reasons Wiley gave were that there is no severe shortage of interpreters and interpreter turnover is not unacceptably high. No shortage? Then why the daily presence of non-certified interpreters in so many of our courtrooms? Hasn't the total pool of certified interpreters dropped from 1,665 in 1985 to 1,285 today? It's also interesting to note that this week in Santa Cruz, court reporters had a one-day work action and walked back to work with salary steps.

The Region's answer to our proposal regarding vacation accrual recognizing our historic seniority was also a resounding, no. Wiley stated that this proposal would cost money and the courts would prefer to spend funds on salary increases. What salary increases?

To wrap up, our proposal on Team Interpreting was discussed briefly. Wiley expressed that the Interpreter Code of Ethics protects any interpreter who appropriately informs a judge of fatigue or any other factor inhibiting an accurate interpretation. Wiley stated that the courts were not willing to go beyond that to make team interpreting mandatory. He encouraged us to follow our code of ethics and to let administration know if Judges respond inappropriately to our requests for breaks.

Some progress was made towards coming to an agreement about how to handle grievances arising from cross assignments.

So what can you do? We're glad you asked.

• First and foremost, stay informed.
• Read and post these updates and check the CFI website for information.
• Come to the CFI conference in San Francisco October 5th, 6th, and 7th.
• Request Team Interpreting: The only way the courts are going to see this as essential is when we, the interpreters, take a stand to protect our Code of Ethics. If we do not get team interpreting and we requests breaks, the bench will either decide that breaks should be taken every 30 minutes or will begin to request team interpreting themselves. Interpreters in some Region 2 counties, including Santa Cruz, Contra Costa, and San Francisco, have been successful in instituting this practice through their own insistence. Stand up for your profession. Now is the time to stop preaching to the choir about team interpreting and professional standards. If you work in a county that does not use team interpreting as a matter of course, request it any time you have a long matter. If you do not get a team, inform the judge that you were denied team interpreting and you will need more frequent breaks. Then be sure to inform the Court when you become fatigued. We will be distributing materials to refresh everyone about how to do this tactfully and with confidence very shortly.
• Document the shortage: We need you all to document any incident that proves what we all know... there is an interpreter shortage. Any case that is not covered, or is covered by a non-certified interpreter is cold hard proof of that shortage. Any instance of understaffing in your court is proof of the shortage. Please fill out the incident report forms completely with all the facts and send it in to CFI or give it to your steward.

We will continue to keep you updated.

Sincerely,
Region 2 Bargaining Committee