Thank you for your article, “SLO County employees threaten labor strike as pay lags” (Nov. 8). The Board of Supervisors are OK with imposing a 0.5 percent (yes, half a percent) wage increase for county employees. This isn’t even a cost of living adjustment (COLA). It’s insulting and abusive.
There are too many children of county employees on public assistance because their parent can’t earn enough to pay for the outrageously expensive health care plans that the county offers. An objective third-party arbiter determined that the contract was inconsistent with basic fairness. Our neighbors and fellow SLO citizens need to know that county employees are grossly undervalued and taken advantage of by a wealthy Board of Supervisors, which has no qualms about voting themselves a fair wage increase while the rest of the county applies for MediCal.
We don’t want to strike, because we lose pay. But this treatment by the board has gone on too long. We could have asked for more of an inequity increase (8 to 9 percent), but we didn’t. We asked for a measly 3 percent. And to counter with an insult of only half a percent? While providing vital services to the citizens of this county, most of whom do not make a livable wage to live here, we should at least be given a fair chance and a fair wage.
Kelly Wilson
Atascadero
This article appears in Holiday Guide 2018.
Excellent article, thank you!!