Court Bargaining Update - Oct. 17, 2019

Dear OCEA member,

Yesterday,  your OCEA Bargaining Team met with the Court for an all-day negotiations session. Our message remained simple and focused - we want an agreement that provides meaningful base wage increases for all OCEA-represented workers. WE WANT RAISES! That has been our position since negotiations began, and it remains our position today. We continued to make progress towards an agreement and have another negotiations session scheduled for next Wednesday, Oct. 23.

If we successfully reach a tentative agreement, we will communicate the terms and conduct ratification voting. If we are unable to do so, the OCEA Bargaining Team, Stewards and Union Action Team members will help determine our next steps. 

As you know, over the past two weeks I have visited every Justice Center to update OCEA members on the status of negotiations. At each meeting I have summarized where we stand and answered member questions. Thank you to all who have participated in the membership meetings. Your feedback has helped at the bargaining table. I will continue a second round of Justice Center visits including  LJC (Friday), HJC (Monday) and WJC (Tuesday).

We are also looking for Union Action Team members. The UAT is a group of OCEA members who help support the efforts of the bargaining team at their worksites. They are the “eyes and ears” of the union in the workplace and do the important work of communicating with their co-workers to ensure they are up to date on negotiations. UAT members participate in monthly meetings and conference calls. If you are interested in joining the Union Action Team you can go to www.ocea.org/getinvolved. Our next UAT meeting will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019 at Noon at OCEA. If you want to attend, please email crosales@ocea.org so we can make sure we have enough food. 

In Solidarity,


Charles Barfield, Lead Negotiator
OCEA General Manager

Publication Date: October 17, 2019