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SEIU 721 members and shop stewards, including Sandra Diaz (SEIU steward and executive board member) and Alex Onnam (library employee and shop steward), asked for health insurance for employees and wage increases they said were necessary to keep staff in Oxnard. “We respectfully urge you not to cut our wages, our benefits,” Sandra Diaz told the council. Representatives of Operating Engineers Local 501 pressed similar themes.

Union officials said in a statement that the proposal “locks in historic cash bonuses, Cost of Living adjustments, increases to our annual healthcare contributions, and beats back the county’s efforts to include language allowing management to unilaterally reduce our raises in the future.”

SEIU 721 is the county’s largest union, with members in 36 of the county’s 38 departments, according to the county.

County officials said the proposed deal with the Service Employees International Union Local 721 would include a $5,000 one-time ratification bonus, a $2,000 bonus in year two, a 2% cost-of-living adjustment in year two and a 5% COLA in year three. The contract would run through June 30, 2028.

“As a union, we will always stand with our immigrant brothers, sisters, and siblings. We will not be intimidated into silence. We will keep showing up. We will keep fighting back,” SEIU 721 said in a statement.

Hundreds of workers pushing for a new contract packed into the board’s meeting in a pre-planned act of civil disobedience.

“Tuesday will mark Day 64 that SEIU 721 members have been working without a contract,” according to a statement from Service Employees International Union Local 721, which accuses the county of slow-rolling contract talks.

“We’re here to send a message to the Board of Supervisors in the county that they need to tentatively agree (to) this contract. We need it done, and we waited too long,” SEIU 721 Executive Director and President David Green told City News Service.

Six union members were arrested Tuesday when hundreds of Los Angeles County workers pushing for a new contract packed into the county Board of Supervisors’ meeting in a pre-planned act of civil disobedience.

It’s unacceptable for USD administrators to ignore their obligations under the law, and it gives us little confidence that they’re working with us productively at the bargaining table.