Operating Engineers are going to impasse over a City of Manteca contract offer that after three years would take the highest base salary a meter reader earns to $70,798.

That represents a 28 percent pay raise over three years.

It is just one of the positions in a contract covering 147 municipal employees that do tasks ranging from street, park, and vehicle maintenance to solid waste collection, custodial work, and running the city’s wastewater treatment plant.

The details of the city offer the OE3 bargaining unit is rejecting can be found on the city’s website by Googling memorandum of understanding.

Information gleaned specifically from the salary scenario 2 reflects an additional 1 percent for the first year salary offer and the ability to collapse 83 hours of annual wellness into the salary schedule going forward allowing it to also increase the ultimate retirement an employee can earn.

Wellness hours were offered years ago by the city when they were in a cash crunch.

Employees had the option of taking time off — in addition to sick time and vacation — or cashing it in at the end of the year. The cash out did not count toward their retirement.

The other bargaining units that have settled with the city opted to convert wellness hours to salary. The OE3 wants to retain the wellness hours on top of salary increases they negotiate.

The scenario does not include the cost of total compensation that for all unit employees that ranges from 20 to 30 percent more in costs.

That includes health benefits, retirement contributions, and delayed compensation.

Also, all city employees accrue 6.6 hours of vacation time monthly for the first 14 months they work. That translates into 80 hours or two weeks of vacation a year

After that it keeps increasing until they’ve been on the job 45 months. At that point, they accrue 15.33 hours a month or 4.5 weeks of annual vacation.

None of the positions the OE3 represents are management and are all hourly.

The second scenario, in some cases, reflects adjustments to salaries in a bid to close pay gaps where they exist with similar positions in nearby jurisdictions.

Under the latest city offer, all positions would see a bump falling between 7 percent and 22 percent over three years.

Those positions that include adjustments to tackle their being below medium salaries would see jumps ranging from 8 to 28 percent over three years.

And in terms of total compensation — all payroll related costs such as benefits — employees covered in the city would receive from just under $100,000 annually to more than $200,000 annually.

Over a three-year period for some of the positions in the second scenario:

*The lead park maintenance worker salary will top out at $96,704 for a 20 percent increase.

*The highest paid non-lead park or golf maintenance worker would top out at $83,573 for an 11 percent increase.

*The senior (lead) solid waste worker will top out at $96,644 for an 18.84 percent increase.

*The top non-lead solid waste equipment operator would top out at $85,035 for a 14.07 percent increase.

*The highest paid street maintenance equipment operator would top out at $83,989 for a 12.77 percent pay increase.

*The top vehiclemechanic position would top out at $113,267 or an 11 percent pay increase.

*The top water distribution operator would top out at $116.132 for an 11 percent increase.

*A senior lead wastewater plant operator would top out at $137,227 for a 20.88 percent increase.

*A senior lead custodian would top out at $78,438 or a 12.28 percent increase.

*A water quality analyst would top out at $110,141 or a 28 percent increase.

*The top paid equipment mechanic would top out at $96,736 for a 25.28 percent increase.

The city’s last offer

The city and Operating Engineers’ Local Union No. 3 have been negotiating since February 2026.

The contract expired June 30. The city has not been awarding bargaining units that they have settled with retroactive pay.

The last offer by the City Council approved during a closed door session on Aug. 18 was rejected by the OE3.

At the Aug. 18 meeting, the city agreed

*to an additional 1% salary adjustment in the first year of the contract – employees would receive a minimum of 3% to a maximum of 8% in salary adjustments have been based on the Gallagher Total Compensation Study completed in early 2026.)

*in the second and third years OE3 members have the option to convert wellness leave hours up to a maximum of 4% additional salary adjustment on top of the City’s initial offer of minimum 2% and maximum 7%; making the new minimum would be 6% to a maximum of 11%, if OE3 chose to convert all wellness leave in one year.

The Gallagher Total Compensation Study found the city’s overall base salaries to be 12.05% below the market median, and total compensation to be 9.67% below the market median.

The city’s multi-year salary increases are designed to responsibly close that gap.

The City’s total compensation package is substantial. For example, in calendar year 2025, several Water Treatment Operators, Water Distribution Operators and Wastewater Operators were the top earners in the OE3 unit, making upwards of over $238,000 in total compensation.

This exceeds the median household income in Manteca which was $97,055 in 2024, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.

OE3 employees earn standby compensation for being on-call, overtime compensation, minimum callback compensation of at least 3 hours paid at time and-one-half, education and certification pay of 2.5%-5%, 5% base salary City-Paid deferred compensation retirement contribution, CalPERS pension retirement contributions, health, dental, vision, disability and life insurance premium contributions and benefits.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com