Riverside County Workers Win New Agreement After Member Action Jump-Starts Contract Talks

Nurses Play a Key Role in Fighting for Services

Riverside County workers have an official memorandum of understanding. The Riverside County Board of Supervisors voted to ratify the SEIU Local 721 contract, which will represent all 6,000 county workers, ending a five-month-long negotiation process. In the new contract, members gained overtime rights, limited furloughs and a fairness agreement among all county employees.

But workers agree this is just the beginning and efforts to promote a more efficient county government must soon start. "We have ratified our contract with well over 90 percent approval, but the work isn't done. This is the first step of many that will lead to a much better Riverside County," said Catherine Eide Nelson, an SEIU 721 bargaining team member (pictured left).

Nurses played a key role in the contract fight to preserve services for residents of Riverside County. For a long period of time, county supervisors had been trying to avoid bargaining a new contract while simultaneously imposing severe budget cuts. On Thursday July 30 members of SEIU Local 721 in Riverside County staged an informational picket at 10 County worksites. Nurses from Local 121RN and Nurse Alliance of California joined the picket at Riverside County Regional Medical Center (RCRMC) in Moreno Valley (pictured right.)

The goal of the picketing was to defend quality public services and encourage voters to place calls to their Board of Supervisors in response to recent budget cuts. Also, to inform patients and customers at those worksites of unfair labor practices imposed by management during SEIU’s current contract negotiations.

Then on August 7th, 700 Riverside employees attended the Board of Supervisors meeting to make sure the message has been delivered (pictured left.) Workers cheered as they got the news: Riverside County decided to return to contract talks just one week after they walked away. The County and SEIU 721 bargaining team resumed meeting Monday, August 10, and started talks that led to the final MOU. 


In the final vote by supervisors, the contract passed 3 to 1, with one dissention from Supervisor Bob Buster. District 2 Supervisor John Tavaglione voiced his support and the need to continue a working partnership as the state budget continues to squeeze local governments. "We've started a new day," Tavaglione said. "There is a lot of work left to do with the state's continuing deficit - the need for all of us to work together in the coming years is critical."

Sheriff Stanley Sniff and members of the Teamsters who were present at the August 7th meeting praised Riverside employees' hard work in fighting for public services. "The real untold heroes in our organization are the members of your union," Sniff said. 

Many families at the July 30th picket were eager to take the flyers handed out that provided the names, phone numbers and email addresses to their County Board of Supervisors. Many patients seen at these county facilities are low income families that don’t have private insurance and their medical coverage providing health care is greatly at risk with these funding cuts to public services throughout their community.

Supervisor Marion Ashley, of District 5, thanked the SEIU negotiation team and strong membership for providing quality services in tough times. "We appreciate the SEIU employees for doing their part for serving and delivering services consistent with the funds available," he said. 

View the MOU by clicking here.