Butte County Associations Embroiled in Difficult Concession Bargaining, Hire CPA Firm

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

UPEC represents two long-standing affiliated employee Associations in Butte County, the Professional Employees Association representing a variety of classifications, predominantly Nurses and Deputy District Attorneys, in the County-established “professional employees” bargaining unit and the Probation Peace Officers’ Association representing rank and file and supervisory peace officers in the Probation Department. 

Last year, contentious negotiations over the County’s proposal that employees take a pay cut resulted in a stand-off and no cuts.  Going into this year’s negotiations, the County replaced their labor negotiator with a law firm.  Ground Rules restrict a detailed discussion of bargaining issues but suffice to say negotiations have again proven very difficult.

Due to a past credibility issue on the County’s stated financial condition, UPEC suggested and a consortium of Unions and Associations agreed to hire a CPA firm to provide a report on the County’s finances.  The intent is to either confirm or rebut the County’s statements about financial distress.  The report is expected sometime in January and will allow the Association bargaining teams to take the conclusions of the CPA firm into consideration as bargaining continues.