JULY 24, 2005

In fact, quite the opposite happened.

“The” issue, as you have probably imagined by now, is money. 

Our very first marathon session ended when the courts insisted they have no more money.  This took place in the early hours of July 1^st, and our committee was pretty unanimous in holding out for a raise – which we did.  During the following sessions, the Region did work very hard at putting together an offer to replace the raise by proposing a step system.  Said system would recognize the commitment interpreters made to the courts by advancing them one step after completing a full year of work.  However, the first step would be below the current pay rate of $265 and current employees would start at the second step, receiving their current pay plus benefits.  The Region insisted that this lower step for new employees was necessary to fund the increases. 

fYour committee spent a lot of time discussing said proposal.  It was the only proposal of its kind statewide but it came at a cost: no raise this year and no re-opener for a raise for the next three years.  We did not like the lower step but also felt it was a priority to get an increase for interpreters who have worked for two years as employees with no benefits.  We agreed to entertain this notion in exchange for a 3% separation between steps and 5 days of paid vacation in the books for all interpreters upon ratification.  Under our plan, an interpreter would start out with no actual raise in pay but an equivalent 2% in vacation pay out of the gate and a step increase of 3% after a year’s worth of work.   

It took the Region a couple of sessions to answer our proposal, and in order to secure this system they asked your committee to give on a few items still outstanding.  Still uncertain as to how this whole step system would work out, the guarantee of 3% increases per year worked over the next three years motivated your team to quickly resolve some of the pending issues.   

But Management had a couple of tricks up their sleeve. 

• Vacation accrual would have to start from scratch.  Interpreters would accrue vacation as brand new employees – not even CIPT time would be recognized.  And the 5 days holiday pay would apply to every full-time interpreter in Region 4 with the exception of San Diego, due to the fact that San Diego has a higher accrual rate.The term of the contract would be 3 years and 3 months – with an expiration date of 9/30/08.  We wanted our contract in Region 4 to expire at the same time as the one in Region 1 (7/1/08)
  
• The step proposal was contingent on doing away with the 4-hour or session guarantee that we have always had as interpreters.  In other words, the Region intended to do away with paying for a session (morning, afternoon or night).  This was never discussed during our negotiations.  The Region completely misconstrued this during one of our discussion and ran with it.  Our proposals have always reflected our intention to preserve this guarantee.

However, your bargaining committee was, and is, determined not to give up the 4-hour guarantee.  We believe this to be one of the foundations of our profession.  The guarantee of pay for our availability to work the full session is the only thing that makes our effective pay rate even marginally acceptable.  This is how we have historically worked and any deviation from this procedure is completely unacceptable.

Once again, it was not meant to be.  Rather than recognizing the huge sacrifices we were willing to make in order to have all issues resolved, management attempted to engage us in a conversation as to pay for hours worked and a gift of public funds and the same old diatribe that your committee believed had been laid to rest a long time ago.  In fact, the Region’s Chief Negotiator went as far as saying that we would have to re-negotiate most of the contract because they never expected to have to guarantee pay for court sessions. 

Before leaving the table, the Region’s attorney quickly clarified that all tentative agreements would remain in effect, attempting to repair some of the damage inflicted by Yvonne Pritchard’s outburst, but by that time your committee was no longer interested in listening to that song and dance. 

Where do we go from here? 

First of all, every member of the bargaining committee thanks you for your patience and support.  Throughout this difficult process, all of your kind words of encouragement have kept us going. 

Second… we want to hear from you.  We want to know what you think now that you know what the issues are.  Email is always best, because we can all see it but if a phone call works best for you, get a hold of one of us. 

And as always, stand by.  Instructions will soon follow.

Bargaining team: