Photo by Gabriel Dillard

The City of Fresno Professional Employees Association (CFPEA) ended its two-day strike after striking a deal with the city.

In a news conference at City Hall, Mayor Jerry Dyer was joined by CFPEA President Jesse Gonzalez in announcing the end of CFPEA’s strike in Fresno and the continuation of city services.

“Yesterday, we [said] that we were more than willing to sit down and meet at any time, even during the holidays, and the leadership of [CFPEA] took us up on that,” Dyer said.

Dyer said that the agreement the union and the city came to is within the nearly $2.5 million the city council offered. Details of the agreement have not been released yet, with Gonzalez saying that he wants his membership to be informed first before details are released to the public.

“I feel confident that what we came up with yesterday will meet their needs for the time being so that we would be able to move forward,” Gonzalez said regarding the contract agreement.

Now, the CFPEA board must review and vote to accept or deny the agreement, which is anticipated to happen after the holidays on the week of Jan. 6.

City Manager Georgeanne White thanked workers who remained on the clock yesterday to keep city services going, saying that the city’s contingency plans were able to allow half of the Fresno Area Express’ routes to continue during the strike. However, officials acknowledged that numerous bus routes were canceled as a result of the CFPEA’s strike in Fresno on Tuesday.

“Our city employees are what make the city run [and] we’re very appreciative of what they do every day,” White said, adding “our employees are deserving of every penny that they earn.”

According to Dyer, decreasing revenues for the city has led to one-year contracts instead of multi-year ones. This means that by March of 2025, multiple contracts, including CFPEA, will be open again for negotiations.