Protecting your happy

On October 21, 2026, UPE and Sutter Superior Court signed an agreement for the Court to increase its flat rate contribution in an amount equal to 100% of the increase in the benchmark healthcare rate. This means if the benchmark rate increases, the Court will increase its contribution in order to continue to pay 100% of the cost. These rates would go into effect for the 2027 Calendar Year. UPE thanks Warren Simpson and Jennifer Lambert for their advocacy for our members!

MEDIATION FAILS Your UPE Court Office Technical Bargaining Team met in good faith with the Court and a State Mediator on October 20, 2026. Unfortunately, mediation failed to produce an agreement. The Court made no movement to provide a livable raise that would keep our members’ salaries up with the current cost of living increase! To add insult to injury, the Court’s Executive Officer approved 9.5% raises for her Operations Directors in March, which equates to an additional a

Your 008-negotiation team met with the department regarding their proposal to implement a universal absence reporting procedure. Management stated this procedure is to provide earlier notification to the ACD analyst of absences for appointment scheduling. UPE had many concerns with the proposed procedure. As an example, the department wants everyone, regardless of their starting time, to call in by 7:15. So if a member’s shift starts at 9 a.m., they will have to call 1 hour a

Greetings, Union Family, Your Yuba Governing Board and Negotiations Team met with the Court for our first official contract negotiations session on October 12, 2026. We presented several proposals surrounding bilingual pay, flexible schedules, CTO, disciplinary action language, and language that would strengthen union representation for our members. The Court tentatively agreed to two of our proposals: one that guarantees union representation at any time during the discipline

UPE met with the department regarding proposed changes in duties for GA HSS. The department is still insisting on HSS staff taking on the work of the now vacant GA HSQR. We proposed a differential for all staff who would be asked to do the out-of-class duties, which the department declined. They agreed to meet with us again after we requested additional information about sanction imposition, training modules & workflows related to sanctions. Once we review and meet again, we

Your 008 negotiation team met with the department again regarding the work number being a mandatory addition to the eligibility process. Your team came up with a list of non-mandatory duties the department has been requiring due to first contact resolution. We have proposed extending intake slots multiple times, and the department continues to deny this. After presenting a reduction in duties, management said they did not have the authority to make decisions. They committed t