The Teamsters have been negotiating their contract with the city for six months.
The turnout at the Redlands City Council meetings began with 30 Teamster union members, then increased to 50, then increased to 120, and they are not letting up.
“The frustration is a reflection of the culture that is being cultivated in the city,” said Rich Smith, bargaining representative for the Teamsters of Redlands.
The contracts are negotiated between bargaining teams and not directly with the council. The benefit of this, said Councilmember Mario Saucedo, is that the council relies on people who have in-depth knowledge of the previous contracts as well as the budget. City staff said due to the nature of the closed session negotiations, they are unable to comment.
Demonstration
The signs employees carried on the streets outside of City Hall, disrupting council meetings as drivers honked in support, called for respect from the city and demands their value to be reflected in their contracts.
The Teamsters of Redlands have been routinely rallying outside of city hall during city council meetings.
“Our members love working for Redlands, we want to continue going down the positive path,” said James Estrada, chief steward for the Redlands Teamsters.
Negotiations
Coming out of a five-year contract, which can be anywhere from two- to five-year commitments with three being the average, city employees have been negotiating a new contract with the city’s bargaining team since October.
During these six months, the Teamsters union of city employees has had 15 meetings with the city’s bargaining team, Smith said.
Out of 25 proposals, 19 have been withdrawn, discarded or settled, and six items remain in discussion including salary, healthcare and language, Smith said.
City Council member and former city employee Saucedo is empathetic to the union and said via phone Wednesday that both sides are aware of how long this process has been. Due to the nine units of city employees, their unique requests and scheduling arrangements, the process can take time, he said.
Saucedo was sworn into his councilship in December, after negotiations had begun, and is a former member of the previous union association during his time as a Redlands city employee.
The Teamsters have attended seven city council meetings, each time mobilizing a larger portion of the union’s workers to address the council.
Their participation is out of frustration, they said, and they find it hard to believe that this “progressive council” wouldn’t meet some of their requests, according to Smith. They are forced to question, ‘Is the council listening to their requests?’ and ‘Is the city’s bargaining team clearly communicating their requests to the council?’
The Teamsters’ 230 members make up over half of all city employees.
Health care
This time, health care is the concentration.
At this time, the Teamsters allege that their health care benefits are not representative of the “equal footing” they desire, said Smith. The Teamsters and other city departments agreed to keep one another informed on the progress of their negotiations. From this, the Teamsters say health care has been negotiated more beneficially for the police and fire departments than is offered to the laborers, said Smith.
Each department has different needs and negotiates based on those, but, Smith said, the only thing the bargaining units can all collectively agree on is the need for health care.
According to the Teamsters, the city justified the discrepancy by saying the risks of emergency services are greater. This did not resonate well with the Teamsters, who see workman’s compensation as the leverage for a more dangerous job. The health care premiums for Teamsters employees and their families are the same ones offered to other departments, so they asked, “Why then are their children valued more?”
Teamsters Local 1932 have established a health care trust for its thousands of members. However it is in its infancy, started four years ago in 2019, and does not have enough funding for the union to rely on it yet, said Smith.
“Everyone’s hero is the one who provides your daily service,” said Smith, who acknowledged that the emergency response teams in Redlands are exceptional. However, the work that allows the residents to live comfortably in their daily lives is largely due to what the Teamsters employees do, he said.
Employee value
Chief steward Estrada has made the effort to showcase this heroism by creating social media that recognizes the duties of city employees. The Instagram page @redlands_employees has nearly 2,000 followers and spotlights the work and workers of Redlands. Posts include the response to a water main break that required crews to make emergency repairs through one evening; removal of a light pole that was creating a road hazard after a car accident at midnight; and a decomposed-tree removal on a Saturday morning.
Former history teacher, mayor and now Mayor Pro Tempore Paul Barich said by phone Tuesday that this is what unions do, and he respects that.
“Employees need representation, I really want our employees to be happy that are working here,” he said.
The Teamsters organization takes surveys to assess what criteria go into the proposals that are presented during negotiations.
“We manage our team’s expectations. These were well thought out proposals,” said Smith. Smith also received a recommendation analysis based on the city’s budget from the national Teamsters organization’s research-and-development department. The department considers the budget and makes recommendations for the areas that the city can afford to invest in. From the forensic report, the union assessed that Redlands would be able to accommodate the requests they proposed.
“We have a lot of faith in this council. We can still say we are looking for a fair agreement,” said Estrada.
No formal date for the next meeting has been arranged yet. The deadline for negotiations is by the end of the fiscal year, June 30.
Councilman Saucedo said, “I have full confidence that we will be able to come to an agreement” in one of the next few meetings.
“You can plan on there being another action, at the next (city council) meeting,” said Estrada, should the council and negotiations continue as they have been.
The Teamsters in Redlands are the employees of the library, disposal collections, landfill, wastewater treatment, sewer line connections, water distribution, water production, streets, parks, trees, cemetery, customer service, recreation, inspection, code enforcement, and administration members in human relations, fire, city manager’s office and finance departments.
