Orange County Teamsters resume strike after rejecting revised pay offer

More than 400 Orange County Teamsters are returning to picket lines after rejecting a revised county pay offer, Voice of OC reported Thursday. The workers had paused their strike for just over a week while negotiations continued.

Most of the county's Teamsters work at its landfills, putting trash processing at the center of the dispute. Voice of OC reported that county leaders publicly described landfill operations as normal before reporting reduced processing to a state agency.

County supervisors raised their proposed one-year pay increase from 3% to 4%, according to Voice of OC. But with several months of the contract year already elapsed, the publication put the offer's effective increase for that year at slightly more than 3%.

Members considered the revised raise insufficient and have also sought backpay missed during negotiations, the publication reported. Teamsters Local 952 Secretary-Treasurer Eric Jimenez said in a Tuesday statement that members overwhelmingly rejected the offer because it did not adequately recognize their work.

The union described its temporary return to work as a good-faith gesture during negotiations, according to Voice of OC. Picketing is resuming at the county hall of administration and all three county landfills.

The union and county have filed competing complaints with the California Public Employee Relations Board, as identified in the report. The union alleges bad-faith bargaining, while the county alleges improper strike tactics.

County spokesperson Molly Nichelson said the county would continue using contingency plans as needed to limit service disruptions, according to Voice of OC.