Around 300 Sacramento County health workers hit the picket lines Monday to protest low wages they say are far less than they could make in private industry. The workers - including nurses, mental health counselors and kitchen employees - said they planned to continue the strike Tuesday in spite of predicted triple-digit temperatures.
Union and county negotiators plan to discuss the impasse at a meeting scheduled for Tuesday morning. The two sides will try to resolve the raise package for workers that union members say is paltry, said workers' spokesman Felix Huerta.
County officials said one clinic was shut down due to lack of workers.
The 550-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 146, authorized the strike earlier this month. Workers say the contract offered by the county would have left their wages at least 15 percent below market level.
At the Women, Infants and Children clinic, up to 300 patients were turned away despite scheduled appointments, said Susan Ickes, the office manager. The general nutrition and health clinic for low and middle-income people usually has a staff of 23. On Monday there were three.
"We are trying to take care of our patients' needs. We are still giving them the food vouchers, but they are having their nutrition classes rescheduled," said Ickes.
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Workers at the clinic say they rejected the contract offer because it offered only a cost of living raise. With health insurance premiums rising, many workers say the county needs to pay them more. The last three-year contract ran out on June 30.
"Even if I worked for the county for 20 more years, I would still be making the same amount," said Janet Morales-Rodriquez, a nutritional assistant making $12 an hour.
Morales-Rodriquez said she's been working for the county for seven years and her son working at a grocery store makes more than she does.
"I'm cut off. I won't make any more unless I leave or get a raise in this new contract," she said.
Protests took place in front of the Mental Health Treatment Center, the juvenile hall, the main county jail, the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center, a primary care clinic and the WIC clinic in Sacramento.
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