About a thousand Shasta County employees are working without a contract, and they’ve declared an impasse in negotiations. The General Unit Employees are represented by UPEC, which has held several bargaining sessions with county officials starting last year. The contract expired at the end of December. The union says that when the county was having budget troubles, the workers agreed to pay 7% out of their checks toward retirement. The workers want that restored, they want a cost-of-living raise to match inflation, they want lower cost insurance premiums, and they want an across-the-board 15% pay raise. The county is offering 7% over three years. UPEC will be pitching their proposals to the Board of Supervisors.