The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously voted Tuesday to implement a memorandum of understanding between Mayor Daniel Lurie and local labor unions representing city employees. The agreement includes a 12 percent raise over four years and prevents layoffs for permanent civil service employees through June 2029.
Three of the city’s largest labor unions, SEIU Local 1021, IFPTE Local 21 and the Municipal Executives Association, are in on the agreement. Collectively, over 22,000 employees across six labor unions are represented in the deal, over two-thirds of the entire city’s public workforce.
For labor leader Vince Courtney, business representative for Northern California District Council of Laborers, job security is an important part of the bargain.
“I think the layoff protection is over-the-top unique,” Courtney said. The city will not issue layoff notices or lay off permanent civil service employees through June 2029, according to the agreement. “What the city actually gave was really significant. I’ve never seen it before, and I’ve been doing this 25 years.”
But not all employees in the deal will benefit from the layoff protection. Criss Romero, executive director of the Municipal Executives Association, which represents managers, supervisors and executive staff across the city, said he represents many employees who are not considered permanent civil servants. Some executive assistants and secretaries, for example, are exempt from civil servant status. Still, he said, the 12 percent raise still applies and will provide “some sense of security” to workers’ lives.
The deal is “meant to bring labor peace,” Romano said, at a time when it’s needed. In April, when Mayor Lurie proposed layoffs to city employees, union leaders promised to fight. In May, they threatened to strike. Now, they have peace.
Just how long that peace will last is uncertain.
“A union contract is a living document,” Romero said. “We will always have to deal with some issues that come up.”
