Court interpreters back on job

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

After more than a month-long strike, court interpreters in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Los Angeles Counties returned to work yesterday without a new contract.
Jose Navarrete, a certified Spanish, English interpreter in the Santa Barbara division of the County Superior Court, said the union voted to return to work Monday after State Senator Gloria Romero asked them to do so during a Committee on Public Safety Meeting in Los Angeles.


Navarrete, who is the lone full-time, certified court interpreter in Santa Barbara and is one of only a handful in the county, said several court officials in Los Angeles testified before the committee, as did members of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, about the effects the strike has had on the courts in Los Angeles County.
He said both groups told different tales.
Navarrete said court officials claimed everything was under control at the courts and interpreter positions had been filled by contract employees. But attorneys and other employees painted a picture of of disarray, which forced hearings to be canceled and induced long delays.
Silvia Barden, president of the Federation of Interpreters, an affiliate of the Communication Workers of America, told the Daily Sound on Sept. 4 that the Region 1 courts, which include Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Los Angeles, have offered a 4 percent wage increase, but the union is asking for annual step increases in their pay as well.
Barden and Navarrete claim all other court employees receive step increases in their pay.
As a result of the strike, Navarrete said little has been solved, but he noted Romero said she planned to inform the State Attorney General about the breakdown in contract negotiations.
“I would have liked to have stayed out [on strike] a little bit more,” Navarrete told the Daily Sound yesterday. “We didn’t win what we wanted to win before the strike but it culminated on a very good note for us because it basically validated that the courts don’t respect us. They have the money there, they just don’t want to give it to us.”
During the strike, Navarrete said his job was filled by contract interpreters, which represent the majority of court interpreters in Santa Barbara County.
As a result of the contract workers’ prominence and availability, Navarrete said the strike was undermined.
“As far as I’m concerned they are scabs,” he said. “It’s just reprehensible.”
Attempts to reach Lynn Dunlap, assistant courts executive officer for the Santa Barbara County Superior Court, for comment were not immediately successful.