911 Dispatchers In Santa Clara County Threaten To Strike
Source: KPIX/CBS 5 San Francisco
Dozens of union emergency dispatchers rallied in San Jose Thursday to say they may strike against Santa Clara County over mandatory overtime, but the countys top official said that could trigger a court injunction to block it.
Members of Service Employees International Union Local 521 showed up to support the unions insistence that the county stop requiring its 61 communications dispatchers to work overtime to fill 73 full-time positions.
The county also has failed to recruit new qualified workers and hold onto veteran employees who are leaving for better jobs elsewhere, the unions chief elected officer Luisa Blue said.
Requiring 911 dispatchers to work hundreds of hours of overtime a month while the county seeks to hire new dispatchers for its understaffed Communications Department amounts to an unfair labor practice, Blue said.
Read more: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/08/22/911-dispatchers-in-santa-clara-county-threaten-to-strike/
They've got a point. Overworked 911 dispatchers = sh*t will happen. Something those county govt managers who've probably never spent a minute working in the settings they oversee do not know!