Did you know SRCEA began as
vehicle for all employees of the City of Santa Rosa
to consolidate concerns and issues related to work
conditions and benefits? It's true. Members of all
departments and at all levels within the City were
represented. It was actually more of a social association,
with monthly meetings being hosted at various sites
throughout the city, and things like group health insurance
policies being the topic of discussion. The meetings always
ended with refreshments being served and an annual
picnic and dinner were typical. Of course the City was a lot
smaller and records show that in 1957 the dues were less
then $4.00 a year.
But City employees of yore had no bargaining rights. The
Federal Government's National Relations Act, the basic labor
law of the United States, excludes local and state
government employees. Since the Federal Government had
explicitly left out this group of workers, most states began enacting
their own set of governing rules. In 1961, California
adopted the George Brown Act, but this set of laws was
quickly dismantled |
with amendments and such. Then in
1968, California adopted the Meyers-Milias-Brown
Act. This act removed local government employees from
the Brown Act and established a new set of laws governing
the ways local entities bargained and dealt with employee
and employee relations.
Once this act was adopted, it changed the way each local
government dealt with employee relations. The key to this
set of laws was the fundamental provision that
allowed agencies, e.g. cities, to grant exclusive
representation to an employee organization, for specific
groups of employees contained within a bargaining unit. The
act also provided that once an organization was granted
representation for a unit, it is obligated to represent all
employees of that unit (whether or not they are active
members). Employees may still represent themselves directly
with their employer, although not for bargaining employment terms
and conditions. The City of Santa Rosa soon implemented the
MMB Act and thus created the various bargaining units.
SRCEA was granted representation for Units #4, #6 and
#7. It became the responsibility of |
the SRCEA to ensure
"Memorandums of Understanding" were generated
between the City of Santa Rosa and each of these three
units. These MOUs outline the working terms and conditions.
As time passed groups of employees have moved in and out
of bargaining units, but SRCEA has proudly served to secure
numerous benefits and sufficient compensation for those
employees represented by the association. Today the
SRCEA does not function as a social group, but we still have
a good party once a year to celebrate the membership.
Although membership is not a requirement (we are not an
agency shop), about 75% of all employee in the
three units continue to be active members.
For more information:
Meyers-Milias-Brown Act
MOUs for each Unit
Becoming an Active Member
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