Employees of several city utilities in Stockton went on strike this week, alleging unfair labor practices and pleading for livable wages.
The city of Stockton’s Operations and Maintenance Unit and the Trades and Maintenance Unit, whose employees work for the city’s water, sewer, and storm utilities, made the decision to go on strike Tuesday after allegedly going without a contract for more than five months, according to a press release from Mike DeAnda, a representative from the union Operating Engineers Local 3.
According to Local 3, their workers have faced unfair labor practices by the city. They say the city failed to provide necessary information that the union has asked for and allege that workers were threatened with termination if they picketed.
Stockton City Manager Harry Black denied the allegations, saying that the city has not held back any information that the union has requested and that employees are not working without a contract.
“We provide all information as required. A piece of information may not have gotten to them when they wanted it to get to them, but it got to them,” Black said. “And in terms of working without a contract, that’s not true.”
We have to be able to respond to work within a 45-minute period, and that means for a one-week period you can’t go out to eat with your family,
you can’t eat sometimes [at all],
I can’t even go to the store.
Rex Benedict, collections systems operator
He said the standard procedure is that while negotiating a new contract, the current contract stays in force.
As for not allowing the employees to picket or threatening them with termination, Black said Stockton supports its employees’ right to strike.
Henry Torres, a senior maintenance repair technician who has worked for the city full-time since 1991, said he felt that the city expected employees to accept a meager contract offer.
City of Stockton operating engineers strike outside Stockton City Hall in Stockton, Calif., on Nov. 28, 2023. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News/Catchlight Local) 
City of Stockton operating engineers strike outside City of Stockton Water Recovery Center in Stockton, Calif., on Nov. 28, 2023. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News/Catchlight Local) 
City of Stockton operating engineers strike outside Stockton City Hall in Stockton, Calif., on Nov. 28, 2023. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News/Catchlight Local)
“We are asking the city to give us a fair and equitable contract that we could live with for living wages,” Torres said.
Rex Benedict, collections systems operator in the municipal utilities department for the city for 17 years, said some terms being asked for are a 14 percent increase in pay over three years and an increase to employees’ standby pay. The union says they are being forced to be on standby, meaning they are called into work during off hours.
Benedict said they only get $3 extra an hour to work these shifts, and in exchange they give up quite a bit.
“We have to be able to respond to work within a 45-minute period, and that means for a one-week period you can’t go out to eat with your family, you can’t eat sometimes [at all], can’t even go to the store,” he said.
Many striking employees said they feel the city is finally on good financial footing and should be offering fair contracts to reflect that.
‘We should learn lessons from the past’
In 2012, the city of Stockton filed for bankruptcy and negotiated cuts and reductions for its workforce. At the time, Local 3 said both of the units on strike had agreed to the cuts in order to keep the city solvent, but now employees are questioning why the previous reductions have not been restored.
“Stockton’s City Council needs to do right by the City’s workforce,” Tim Neep, Local 3’s director of public employees, said in a statement. “These workers and their families made personal sacrifices to help the City through a dire financial situation — sacrifices which have continued more than a decade, while the City has more than recovered.”
Benedict said that at the time of the bankruptcy, he and his employees endured much of the burden. He said the city put workers on furloughs and stalled cost-of-living adjustment raises, though they did give a 1 percent Cost-Of-Living Adjustment raise at one point.
A City of Stockton operating engineer adds the “International Union of Operating Engineers” sticker to a strike sign outside City of Stockton Water Recovery Center in Stockton, Calif., on Nov. 28, 2023. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News/Catchlight Local) 
Ralph Handel, former City of Stockton employee, picks up a sign to join the picket line outside the City Corporation yard in Stockton, Calif., on Nov. 28, 2023. Handel said he travelled from Nevada, where he currently works, to show support. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News/Catchlight Local) 
Jess Covarruvias, graffiti abatement technician, strikes outside the City Corporation yard in Stockton, Calif., on Nov. 28, 2023. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News/Catchlight Local)
“We financed the bankruptcy on the workers’ backs,” Benedict said.
Black said the primary thing he has been hearing regarding negotiations is that employees want to go back to pre-bankruptcy numbers.
“That’s how the city of Stockton got into bankruptcy to start with. We should learn lessons from the past,” said Black.
Black said the current negotiations on the table are more than reasonable and he believes other places would consider the offer to be generous.
“We financed the bankruptcy on the workers’ backs.” Rex Benedict, collections systems operator
The city has reached agreements with seven of its nine bargaining units, but employees from the other two units said they plan to strike until Thursday or when a fair negotiation is made.
The strikes will continue to be held at the Trades and Maintenance Corporation Yard, Wastewater Treatment Plant and Stockton City Hall.
City officials said they do not expect delays in services but any residents who experience service issues can call (209) 937-8341.
Victoria Franco is a reporter based in Stockton covering San Joaquin County for Bay City News Foundation and its nonprofit news site Local News Matters. She is a Report for America corps member.
