Sonoma County is questioning the legality of a planned SEIU strike and has informed its employees that should they participate in a strike that is found to be unlawful, they could be subjected to punishments.
The memo, which was sent to employees last week, is the latest ratcheting-up of the rhetoric revolving around the planned one-day strike planned for February 28. SEIU, which represents about half of the County’s employees, says that the strike is to protest the County’s unfair labor practices. Such a strike would be legal and SEIU told the local newspaper that the memo was a strong-arm tactic to discourage participation in the strike.
However, the County has contested that the strike has less to do with labor practices and more to do with frustrations from labor negotiations, which have been slowly progressing for 11 months. Protesting labor negotiations is not legal.
Read the full story at the Press Democrat.