Contra Costa County’s district attorneys voted overwhelmingly in favor of going on a one-day strike to protest poor pay on Thursday night. The prosecutors are expected to strike in early November, though no date was set in order to avoid facing an injunction by the county, according to Deputy District Attorney Mary Knox, who is also the secretary of the District Attorney’s Association.
The association, which is in negotiations with the county on a three-year contract, has argued that they receive some of the lowest salaries in the Bay Area despite having to deal with a high crime rate. Contra Costa had the third highest number of homicides in the area in 2005, according to the California Department of Justice.
“We will continue our efforts to make the public aware of this crisis in public safety,” Knox said.
The final vote was 73 in favor of a strike, with one dissent and one abstention. A walk out by the district attorney’s office would leave to managers the task of filing charges in all cases that came up that day. The county must file charges within 48 hours of an arrest. Knox said that the public defenders announced they would not cross the picket lines in the event of a strike.
Knox would not discuss the specifics of ongoing negotiations, but she did say that prosecutors in San Mateo, San Francisco, Alameda, and Santa Clara counties make 33 percent more than do the lawyers in her office. According to the Contra Costa Times, a request by the district attorney’s office of a 30 percent raise was countered with an offer of only 7 percent by the county.
