Hercules City Workers Agree to Pay, Benefit Cuts

An employee union and city negotiators have agreed to a new one-year contract that will result in 12.5 percent cuts in salaries and benefits, interim City Manager Fred Deltorchio announced Friday.

The deal means that city workers will see salary cuts from a 36-hour work weeks and furlough days, and they will have to pay most of their retirement contributions themselves, according to Deltorchio's announcement. He also said various reimbursement programs will be suspended but did not elaborate.

The tentative agreement was reached between city negotiators and Teamsters Local 315. The city's senior management and unrepresented employee bargaining groups also agreed to the new contract, Deltorchio said.

"This constitutes a considerable step in reducing our current budget gap and these employee groups should be commended for theirappreciation of the city’s financial situation and willingness tonegotiate in good faith until an agreement could be reached," he said in the news release. "The Teamsters have suffered the majority of staff reductions thus far."

With 3.7 percent in cuts last year, the employees have had a cumulative cut of 15.7 percent from where they were two years ago. (Note: This story initially gave an incorrect figure for the combined impact of the two years of concessions.)