After spending months making demands to city leaders to pay them fairly and treat them like their work is essential, our brothers and sisters from MEF in San Jose won a new contract.
The victory is significant for workers in San Jose because Municipal Employees' Federation (AFSCME Local 101) won the contract by working in coalition with IFPTE Local 21, whose members also are public service workers for the city. The coalition was able to get one of the largest raises our members have received in nearly 30 years.
“Normally, we would all be fractured and we would have gone to the city with different agendas,” said Steven Solorio, president of MEF. “This time, there were some common goals. And, by standing united, it gave the city a sense that they couldn’t divide us.”
The unity our brothers and sisters showed paid off. Some of the main things they won included:
- a 6.25% wage increase over two years with pay retroactive to July and the potential to negotiate more next year if certain economic factors are met
- A $1,000 stipend for every worker to say “thank you” for their essential service during the pandemic
- The ability to have Juneteenth off as an additional paid holiday
- A paid family leave policy
- The opportunity to take classes at the community centers where they work to increase their job skills
- An increase in vacation time for employees who have worked for the city for less than five years
- Shift differentials for several essential positions
At times, it seemed like San Jose city leaders were prepared to pass a budget without considering the concerns our members had raised. City leaders struck an early deal with police officers to give them a bigger raise, but they refused to give other public service workers—including police dispatchers who help run the police department—the same wage increase.
That move was a clear sign that San Jose might not follow through on its promise to treat all essential workers fairly. As a result, our brothers and sisters kept fighting for a fair return on their work.
One of the issues the coalition kept focusing on was the fact that San Jose has been having a major understaffing crisis, with over 700 city jobs not filled.
The pandemic made things worse because frontline city workers were asked to put their lives at risk to provide essential services to the residents of San Jose to alleviate hunger, provide educational support for families and respond to medical emergencies. But many city workers still struggle to take care of their own families’ needs.
So, our brothers and sisters organized to make their voices heard loud and clear.
They flooded city council meetings, often taking up to two to three hours to share their stories with elected officials. They also held a huge rally in front of City Hall and staged a march around 700 empty chairs to show everyone that the understaffing crisis was serious.
“I’m tired of hearing our council talk about equity, systemic racism and taking care of vulnerable neighborhoods, but they won’t start by paying the people who do the work,” said Olympia Williams, an IFPTE Local 21 member who manages the Beautify San Jose program for the city. “During the pandemic, we worked out of our houses, we went into people’s homes to do code (enforcement) and my team literally cleaned up homeless encampments day in and day out. So we’re demanding to be paid an equitable, living wage every day that we come to work for this city.”
Solorio said he was most proud of the fact that the coalition helped working people set a new standard in San Jose.
The next time the city has to consider their contract and how the city makes progress, they’ll be reminded that the city can’t move forward without making sure the workers have what they need to make progress in their own lives, he said.
“I feel like we moved the pendulum for working people in San Jose,” Solorio said. “When we go back to the negotiation table a few years from now, we’ll be starting from a whole new place of power."
