FEA and POA Boycott District’s Staff Reconition Event

The last contract negotiation season was lengthy and demoralizing for many of the employees at the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. 

In September of 2021 after a lengthy negotiation, the Field Employees Association (FEA) signed a negotiated agreement with the District, but only by a narrow majority. Originally the FEA members had voted No on the District’s final offer. The tactic that the District used to get the signed agreement was to threaten to impose work rules on to the FEA with a significantly reduced cost of living adjustment, forcing employees already struggling due to high inflation to make the choice to take the modest pay adjustment being offered and lose the protections of binding arbitration during the grievance procedure or get a significantly reduced pay adjustment and have binding arbitration stripped from them in imposed work rules anyway. When the FEA members voted a second time, only a narrow majority of the members voted to approve a contract. 

The FEA represents the District’s maintenance workers and includes the jobs of Open Space Technician, Lead Open Space Technician, Equipment Mechanic Operator, Volunteer Program Lead, Farm Maintenance Worker, and Facilities Maintenance Specialist. These employees build and repair the District’s trails, maintain fire clearance around buildings and staging areas, and perform many other often unseen tasks that help the District operate smoothy. 

Nearly a year later in August of 2022 after another prolonged negotiation session, the District followed through on their threat to impose work rules, this time on the Midpeninsula Rangers Peace Officers Association (POA). The members of the FEA watched as the District weaponized their contract with the District as a justification to  remove binding arbitration in the work rules for the Rangers “because they had a negotiated agreement with the FEA”. 

As a result of this negotiations process, the POA voted and unanimously agreed to boycott the District’s Staff Recognition Event because serving employees a hamburger or hotdog at a bbq once a year doesn’t make up for the disrespect shown to employees during these negotiations. The FEA also voted and agreed to boycott the event in solidarity with the Rangers as the two labor unions of the District.

Please read both unions’ open letters to the District Board and management team below:

Alex' Hapke’s letter to District Management from the POA and read into the record at the District’s Board of Directors Meeting

General Manager Ana Ruiz and Assistant Manager Brian Malone,

The POA membership has voted to boycott the Staff Recognition Event this year, as we do not feel valued or respected. The lack of engagement at the bargaining table for the association's biggest issue has sent a clear message to the membership. That message is that the District was not interested in fully listening to their employees or engaging in a meaningful dialogue on the difficult issues during these negotiations. That along with the imposition of work rules removing binding arbitration has signaled to the rangers that the District does not currently value employee protections. The District's choices have created an adversarial atmosphere, and the only way I see that changing is if both sides can come to the table with an open mind and the willingness to address the concerns of the other. It will take time, but we look forward to healing this rift and hope the District will be open to meaningful negotiations next round.

Alexander Hapke, President
Midpeninsula Rangers Peace Officers Association

The FEA Board’s Letter to the District’s Management and Board

Midpen Board and Management team,

The FEA Board has recommended and encouraged our membership to boycott the Staff Recognition Event this year. The main reason is in solidarity with our fellow POA union that recently had work conditions imposed on them. This has our own members concerned with how we will be treated in the future when we have our own concerns to address. By imposing work conditions you have simply kicked the can down the road and have not engaged in any meaningful discussions with the POA to resolve their rightful concerns.

Similar to how the POA felt during negotiations, FEA negotiators also found that the District was not interested in fully listening to their employees or engaging in meaningful conversations. This was obvious when our COLA (cost of living adjustment) was being threatened to be a low 1.6% in 2021 unless we agreed to remove binding arbitration, something our membership was very much against. Ultimately we conceded in order to keep our salaries whole, but have major concerns with the GM having full control of the grievance procedure and having the ability to not listen to the Administrative Law Judge. 

That being said, even the 3% COLA's that we have been receiving has not been enough. The CPI's (consumer price index) for the San Francisco area, which Management uses to adjust our salaries, has been higher than 3% for the last 18 months. The last 18-month average has been 4.6%, while the last 8-month average has been 5.7%. 

Your staff are struggling and essentially seeing their salaries shrinking while our comparator agencies are offering better raises. Meanwhile, Midpen's property tax revenue is up 7% this last year alone, and up 16% from Fiscal Year 2020. Given the increases in revenue there is no reason our salaries should not be kept whole and adjusted to the rising cost of living. This was ever so evident when we all received a work email recently about how we will be able to apply for low-income housing in the renovated 330 Distel Circle building. For single-person households in Santa Clara County, low-income is $92,250. The starting salary for every FEA position is in the very-low-income to low-income bracket, with the OST/Farm Maintenance Worker far below that, starting at only $68,207. Our organization should be striving for more.

At this time, for the above reasons, our organization can not support a "Staff Recognition Event" when a vast majority of our members feel unappreciated and unrecognized. We hope in the future to have more open and meaningful negotiations and to feel like our concerns are addressed and salaries kept whole with livable wages.

Thank you,

Chris Perry, FEA President

Trisha Marshall, FEA Treasurer

Scott Cotterel, FEA Secretary

Jessica Vizena, FEA Member at Large