Two weeks into the first city employee strike in Solvang’s history, labor negotiators met in closed session with the City Council on Sept. 28.
The following morning, Solvang’s unionized members of Teamsters Local 986 made good on their word to remain on strike until the city offers a contract they agree to ratify.
“The strike continues,” Jeff Lee, Teamsters’ business representative, confirmed with the Sun via text on Sept. 29.
That Tuesday marked the beginning of the union’s third continuous week of striking since Sept. 15, when about 30 city employees—from departments including Public Works and Planning and Development—stopped showing up for work.
The strike began in protest of Solvang’s “last, best, and final” pay raise offer: consecutive 4 percent raises over the next three years for unionized staffers.
Union members asked the City Council to implement a 6 percent raise for two of those three years instead. But the council unanimously sided with staff’s recommendation.
During the council’s regular Sept. 28 meeting, which followed the hour-long closed session hearing, City Manager Randy Murphy said: “As I pointed out last time, … they do get a fair living wage. It’s $75,000 a year on average.”
“This no way diminishes the importance of each of those staff members. But they are receiving a fair wage,” Murphy continued. “It’s fair and balanced.”
Murphy added that he’s grateful for “the members of our team who are putting in the long hours to keep … essential services going” throughout the strike.
Mayor David Brown gave a similar shout-out later in the meeting.
“Danish Days went by very smoothly I think, in large part [thanks] to our city management team that picked up the slack during the strike,” Brown said, “and it made it very seamless, as best as we could expect.”
In a Sept. 24 release, the city stated that employees on strike go “unpaid for each day they strike.”
As part of his comments in the release, Murphy described Teamsters Local 986 as “holding the city hostage with its efforts to shut down city services.”
Teamsters Local 986 Central Coast Coordinator Cliff Reynolds issued a statement on Sept. 29 to refute what he described as the city’s “false and misleading assertions.”
“City workers deeply value serving the Solvang community. All they are asking for is a fair wage agreement, … fair wage increases to keep up with economic realities,” Reynolds stated, “and they are fully prepared to stay the course until the city initiates bargaining and returns to the negotiation table as publicly promised.”
This article appears in October 1 – October 8, 2026.
To City Manager: A salary of $75,000 a year may appear reasonable on paper, particularly for a single person. But when that employee is the primary breadwinner supporting a household of three—a spouse and a child—we also have to consider the family’s actual living conditions and financial responsibilities.
This is the Central Coast, where the cost of housing, groceries, utilities, transportation, insurance, and other basic necessities is high. A salary should not be looked at only as a number. We should also consider what that income realistically provides for an employee and their family in the community where they live and work.