Union members had mixed reviews Wednesday of the contract proposal that their leaders negotiated this week with the county of Ventura.

The Service Employees International Union is the county's largest union, representing close to 4,000 workers. On Tuesday, SEIU negotiators reached a tentative contract agreement with the county to give workers an across-the-board salary increase of 7.5 percent over the next two years and two months, along with an increase in funding of retirement benefits and a $24 per month increase in the county's contribution to workers' healthcare premiums. The increase will keep most county workers paying no out-of-pocket premiums.

The agreement still must be approved by both the Ventura County Board of Supervisors and the union membership. Members will vote by mail over the next two weeks, and the Board of Supervisors is likely to vote on it in September.

On Wednesday night, about 200 union members gathered at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Ventura to hear their leadership explain the details of the proposed contract.

The deal was the result of "a hard push" and "some drama at the bargaining table" over the past week, said Sandy Stewart, the director of the SEIU's Ventura County region.

Last week, county negotiators were ready to walk away from the table after four months, Stewart said.

The sides were separated by half a percent in salary, and a union vote on whether to authorize a strike was set for Wednesday. But on Tuesday afternoon, the county proposed an additional 0.5 percent raise in 2008, and union negotiators agreed, averting the need for a strike vote.

Union members still met on Wednesday, but they gathered to debate the proposed contract rather than whether to strike.

The workers who spoke during the meeting were split fairly evenly on the contract. Some said negotiators should have held out for a 10 percent raise over two years, while others said 7.5 percent was a good deal, since the county's early offers were about 3 percent.

"I think it's really good, for what they started from," David Escamilla, a Human Services Agency employee, said after the meeting.

Ena Carcamo, another Human Services Agency worker, said she's "half-and-half" on the proposal. "I'm leaning toward voting against it," she said. "I think we can do better."

However, Carcamo said, she would not be willing to strike if the union can't do any better than the current deal. Like many county workers, she can't spare the lost pay.

The lack of support for a strike was one reason the SEIU team agreed to the deal this week, Stewart said.

"We've been listening to the workers, and what we heard was, there was a lot of workers who weren't going to be supportive of a strike," Stewart told the members.

Many workers said they were frustrated with the lack of participation by union members. The SEIU held a series of rallies to pressure the county to offer more pay, and none drew more than a couple of hundred people, out of nearly 4,000 members.

Ballots on the tentative contract agreement will be mailed Monday to SEIU members, who will have 10 days to vote.

John Nicoll, the county's chief deputy executive officer and its lead labor negotiator, said the county is happy with the proposed contract. "I think it's good for all of us, and it's a balanced agreement," he said.

Nicoll now must start negotiating with a new union that represents 134 county engineers and appraisers. They voted last month to break off from the SEIU and negotiate for their own labor agreements. Those talks are set to begin soon, Nicoll said.