Tentative agreement reached to end City of Fresno employee strike

Updated 10 minutes ago
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The first strike the City of Fresno has seen in decades has been called off just a day after the City's Professional Employees Association Union took to the picket lines.

The group represents 400 city supervisors who oversee transit, wastewater, parks, and more.

A tentative agreement came down late Tuesday evening after several city services were impacted.

That includes the cancellation of more than 300 bus routes as employees in a different union joined the strike in solidarity.

"As the mayor Fresno, I do want to express my apologies to the citizens of Fresno for any disruption in service that they felt yesterday as a result of the strike," said Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer.



This agreement was about a year in the making.

CFPEA president Jesse Gonzalez believes the support from other unions is what helped push the deal forward.

"Did you expect it to happen this fast? Honestly, I didn't. I thought we would have to go two days for sure," said Gonzalez.

Mayor Dyer says the city's fiscal realities made the deal difficult and warranted him stepping in.

"We have expenditures in the city of Fresno out pacing that of our revenues, primarily because we have a downward trend in our sales tax revenues," said Mayor Dyer.



The tentative agreement started with 26 issues but was ultimately narrowed down to five key points including working conditions, after hour workloads, retirement benefits, and seniority considerations.

"A lot of what my people were getting, especially at the supervisor level if they requested is something that they're subordinates already had. For instance, the seniority considerations are that something a lot of our blue collar and white-collar subordinates already have in their contracts," said Gonzalez.

The city had offered the CFPEA a 2% ongoing salary increase plus a 1% one-time lump sum, but the union was demanding a 3% raise.

Neither side will say exactly where they ended up before the agreement is presented to union members.

Dyer says it is within the authorized dollar amount set by the city council.



Union members will be voting on the proposed agreement the week of January 6th. Union leaders are hopeful that their members will be in support. The are set to return to negotiations for their next contract in March.

Right now, there are 11 labor unions in the city of Fresno, nine of which opened for negotiations at once.

Currently, five are approved, three have tentative agreements, and one is still open.

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