SEIU Local 721 members at Pleasant Valley Recreation and Park District have been in a battle for 2 years after filing Unfair Labor Practice charges with Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) over the District’s bad faith bargaining.
In a sweeping victory, PERB found the District failed to meet and confer in good faith and interfered in the protected rights of its employees and of Local 721 by engaging in regressive bargaining, making predictably unacceptable offers, and engaging in other bad faith bargaining tactics.
The main point of contention in bargaining was the District’s insistence that all members be treated as “At Will” employees. This type of Lifelong Probation is an affront to union workplaces everywhere.
Even though PVRPD is a small jurisdiction, had this Lifelong Probation been enacted, this would have sent shockwaves throughout the Tri-Counties region and also across the country.
“The Districts attempt to enforce the “At Will” status in contract bargaining was an attack on fundamental worker rights. We knew we had to fight this all the way,” said PVRPD Steward and Executive Board member Jesse Gomez.