Pacific Grove to start Negotiations

Friday, May 23, 2008

PACIFIC GROVE - UPEC Labor Representative Rick Burruss is preparing to get negotiations back on track following the recent hearing with the Public Employee Relations Board (PERB). The union filed a case with PERB when the City unilaterally decided that all City employees were going to be made “at-will” and many services would be contracted out. This in turn put negotiations on hold in the fall of 2007 prior to Local 792 acquiring this bargaining unit. Burruss attended the recent hearing in Oakland which ended in an agreement between the union and the City that essentially said the City would drop it’s effforts to make employees “at-will”. UPEC anticipates that this next round of negotiations won’t be easy either. Pacific Grove may be looking to take their employees out of the PERS retirement system. Upec represents 136 employees in the City.