Not long after showing up to his cubicle for an 8 a.m. shift on Sept. 15, engineering technician Cole Phillips hit the pavement with around 30 other unionized Solvang employees to participate in the first labor strike of its kind in city history.
Before heading out that morning to protest the City Council’s recent handling of a wage dispute, Phillips walked his supervisor—who’s among Solvang staff’s 10 non-unionized department heads—through his daily tasks. He didn’t want to “leave her hanging,” he told the Sun.
“I love working with my boss. She’s super reasonable; super flexible. In all honesty, our main gripe is with upper management getting reasonable pay raises, … [while] we have not,” Phillips said. “Our directors will try to do what we do, and I’m not saying that they can’t. But it’ll take longer because there’s so much to do and less manpower.”
Ongoing as of Sept. 22, the multiday strike began after the City Council approved what Assistant City Attorney Dave Fleishman described as Solvang’s “last, best, and final” offer to city employees represented by Teamsters Local 986.
After union members asked for consecutive raises over the next three years of up to 6 percent per year, the council unanimously decided to cap those consecutive raises at 4 percent.
In the local labor union’s more than 20-year history of negotiating on behalf of Solvang workers specifically, Solvang-based members had never organized a strike prior to the morning that followed the council’s Sept. 14 decision.
Stationed on the picket line along Mission Drive during the afternoon of Sept. 16, Public Works employee Christian Wright told the Sun that if he had shown up for work instead of rallying, his work day would have consisted of installing Danish Days banners—at great heights he’s able to reach thanks to a bucket truck—and other signage across town for the annual event.
Also among those protesting, Solvang’s sole code enforcement officer, Jennifer Calbillo, said she’s not sure who’s filling her shoes during the strike.
“My boss, if we’re lucky,” Calbillo said. “But he’s also doing three other jobs at the moment.”
While Calbillo’s current workload entails responding to about 40 open code enforcement cases, city engineering technician Phillips’ routine includes overseeing dig alert intake, after reported water leaks and other mishaps occur within city limits that may require excavation.
“My job is very quiet. You don’t notice it. But their job,” Phillips said, pointing at some of his peers protesting steps away from the Solvang Park gazebo, “if they’re not out here doing things, you will notice it right away. Things will stop working.”
Phillips said he’s not bothered by how invisible he believes his job is to the public, except for those who know what to look for: arrows and numbers drawn in chalk, for example, on sidewalks near telephone poles and other power sources ahead of dig approvals.
What does bother him, he said, is how invisible he believes his role and other city staffers’ roles are to members of the City Council.
“Not a single council member or city manager over my five years of working here actually sat down to get to know us or shadow us,” Phillips said. “I’m not sure if that’s normal for a council though.”
Based on his experience working with city governments in both Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, Teamsters Local 986 Business Representative Jeff Lee said he’s rarely encountered a council as “unwilling” to speak with him as Solvang’s current body.
“We’ve heard that messages have gone out to the council members not to communicate with us or staff while we try to work this out,” Lee said. “We’ve made attempts to speak with council members. … They’d pick up the phone but weren’t interested in meeting or talking.”
City Manager Randy Murphy told the Sun via email that the city’s handling of recent communications with union officials aligns with formal city policies.
“Solvang has had a long-standing, productive working relationship with Teamsters Local 986. In earlier years, the parties used formal ground rules for negotiations, and over time, as trust developed on both sides, that process became more informal,” Murphy said. “One rule the parties agreed to in the past and have continued to follow is that communication away from the bargaining table goes through each side’s chief negotiator. That practice remains in place today.”
The city’s chief negotiator “remains available for any additional conversations they may wish to have,” Murphy added in a Sept. 17 email.
To support Solvang’s weekend-long Danish Days festivities, the city “arranged for additional services,” Murphy said, allowing residents and town visitors to “look forward to a full Danish Days celebration.”
On Sept. 19, union members took part in the Danish Days program’s Saturday parade, with their own float as part of the procession. Bright labels that adorned the truck called out each Solvang council member by name.
Some staffers protesting the adopted 4 percent raise—voted in as a consecutive annual raise over the next three years—were accompanied by family. One employee’s child held up a picket sign that said: “My dad works harder than 4 percent.”
“We’re going to remain on strike until we have a contract that’s ratified by the membership, … a contract that’s reasonable enough for the bargaining unit members to go back to work,” Lee told the Sun. “We’ve made it clear to them multiple times that we’re ready and available to meet and bargain at any time. If they called me right now and said, ‘Jeff, let’s sit down and bargain,’ we’ll sit down and bargain.”
Prior to the council’s Sept. 14 vote on the new wages, Assistant City Attorney Fleishman summarized the results of a third-party consulting agency’s study that supported staff’s recommendation for a 4 percent arrangement.
While comparing Solvang’s pay rates to those in 11 other cities in California, the study showed that pay for most city positions represented by Teamsters “were either above market median for compensation and benefits, or competitive with the market,” Fleishman told the council.
“If all the information you’re getting is secondhand,” union representative Lee said, “why not call [the union] and just ask them what they want? You can still say no, but at least you have a firm understanding of what that is instead of getting that information from a third party. [But] they just weren’t interested in going there.”
Reach Senior Staff Writer Caleb Wiseblood at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in September 24 – October 1, 2026.
