After more than a year of trying to negotiate a new contract, the city of Fresno’s Professional Employees Association warned City Hall its members are preparing to strike.

The union of city engineers, architects, paralegals, and department supervisors says the city has stopped negotiating. They want a 3% raise, changes to on-call scheduling, and a day a week without a phone call from work, said Jesse Gonzalez, president of the association.

The union also says the city is conditioning a pay agreement from 2018 on approval of the new contract.

But the city says its last, best, and final offer given in October is fiscally responsible and other labor groups have accepted similar offers.

The contract affects more than 400 city workers. A strike would affect every city department, including the permitting and development departments with engineers and architects.

“We’ve been negotiating since towards the middle, end of October of last year. Our contract expired at the end of December. Our last increase for cost of living was June of ’23, and so we’ve been going back and forth for over a year,” said Gonzalez. “It just got to the point where there was no movement.”

Offer ‘Fair, Competitive,’ Says City Manager

The city of Fresno says its pay package matches offers to other labor groups — excluding public safety. Those other offers have been accepted.

The offer included:

• A 2% ongoing salary increase retroactive to June 17
• A 1% one-time payment based on annual base salary
• Implementation of remaining increases from a 2018 compensation study
• Increases in safety shoe vouchers, premium pay, certification pay, and uniform allowances
• A $125 annual reimbursement for prescription safety glasses
• An option to use unused holiday leave toward a Health Reimbursement Arrangement at retirement

“The City has made significant efforts to address CFPEA’s concerns with proposals that are fair, competitive, and fiscally responsible,” said Fresno City Manager Georgeanne White. “While we are disappointed by today’s outcome, our priority remains serving the residents of Fresno and ensuring continuity of operations.”

Workers Insulted by City Offer: Gonzalez

Gonzalez said the remaining increases from a 2018 compensation study should be implemented regardless of the new contract’s approval.

“That was six years ago. It hasn’t happened yet. And now, they’re telling my members that, ‘I know you’ve been waiting for six years, but if you agree to this 2%, we’ll finally pay you what we owe you,” Gonzalez said.

He said some workers who have since retired never received what they were supposed to. He said others who started in 2018 are at their maximum pay, awaiting increases.

City Denies Requests for Scheduling Allowances

Supervisors also want agreements on issues other than compensation. The union asked for an on-call schedule based on seniority. They also asked for one day a week where members can expect not to get a phone call.

Many work in essential services and are often contacted on their days off, the association president said.

Gonzalez also said the city has not given counter offers to those asks.

The city has two other contracts coming up, Gonzalez said. Bus drivers will soon negotiate a new contract, as will the Local 39 representing many of the city’s blue collar workers.