Catherwood LibraryILR School

There is talk of striking by the International Union of Operating Engineers Bargaining Local 39, which represents about 850 state building operators and water-system engineers. The pay in the contract that the union is currently working under is so dismal that other governments and private business regularly poach workers which exacerbates the labor shortage that has led the state to mandate too much overtime and bring in more costly contractors. The current proposal by Governor Brown?s administration includes a 3.3% raise, but Steve Crouch who is negotiating on behalf of the engineers says that the proposal is far less than State Water Project employees and less than half of what DMV employees were offered and secured in their contract. Mr. Crouch says that this is the time for the contract to change, and compares the struggle ahead to that of the recently resolved conflict between California and the 13,000 University of California hospital employees.