Two unions representing around 4,500 San Jose employees voted to authorize a three-day, mid-August strike, ramping up pressure on the mayor and city council to support higher wages for its workers.
If the strike happens as proposed starting Aug. 15, it would mark the first time since 1981 that a large contingent of city employees walked off the job in protest of working conditions. The last time any San Jose union went on strike was in 2007, when a small group of building inspectors fought the city over disciplinary rules.
“We need better benefits and pay for our workers,” San Jose Fire Department 911 dispatcher Scarlet Darmousseh said outside of City Hall on Monday morning. “We need to be able to recruit and retain workers.”
But city officials say they would need to cut services and staffing to meet the unions’ demands. Contract negotiations between the unions and the city are currently gridlocked over pay bumps that amount to $23.9 million a year, according to the city.
The two unions, IFPTE Local 21 and MEF-AFSCME Local 101, represent a wide swath of city workers from departments that include parks, libraries, code enforcement and airport employees. Between 96% and 99% of union employees approved the strike during a four-day vote last week, though the exact number of participating employees was not made public.
City services would almost certainly be impacted if the strike proceeds. San Jose administrative officials said they are preparing for the action by determining which departments are needed to keep services running at a minimum but have so far not provided extensive details. The city has a total of about 7,000 workers.
The unions contend that San Jose administrators have kept wages low compared to surrounding cities, resulting in staffing issues that have affected morale and the quality of city services. A contract for the unions expired in June.
Councilmember Peter Ortiz, who stood alongside union members on Monday morning, said the city needs to “tighten the belts on the budget” so it can do better by its employees.
“I truly believe that we can provide a contract and raise for our largest municipal unions without making direct cuts, whether it is community centers or libraries or other services,” said Ortiz, who represents the east side of the city.
Joining Ortiz at City Hall on Monday were Assemblymembers Alex Lee and Ash Kalra, who both represent parts of San Jose.
“City services are only as good as the people who are providing them,” Lee said. “If you’re constantly losing the talent, losing dedicated people, we’re not going to get the best results for San Jose.”
But Mayor Matt Mahan has warned that the wage increase would present a major challenge to the city’s budget — and any rejiggering of workers’ pay could lead to a wide-scale slashing of city services.
“We would have to shut down two-thirds of our community centers across the city,” said Mahan in an interview. “Or we would have to eliminate 40 percent of 911 and police dispatch. These are big, big numbers.”
Mahan has also asserted that city staffing levels and pay are competitive with neighboring municipalities.
According to figures provided by the city, San Jose currently has a 12.3 percent vacancy rate, or 798 positions, down from a high of 14.8 percent in August of 2022. Oakland’s vacancy rate is 12.2 percent, Alameda 12.6 percent, Fremont 13 percent, Santa Clara 13.6 percent, Hayward 14.52 percent, Palo Alto 15.1 percent and Berkeley 19 percent.
The wage increase that the city proposed for this fiscal year is slightly less than half a percent higher than the average of what comparative unions in other Bay Area cities and counties have accepted. However, the wage increase offered two years from now is over a full percentage point less than the other unions.
“We are prepared for a strike,” Mahan said. “And I sincerely hope we don’t get there. The best chance for avoiding a strike and maintaining essential city services is to go back to mediation.”
The city’s budget director Jim Shannon concurred with the mayor’s assessment of San Jose’s fiscal situation. “There’s not a lot of easy choices,” Shannon said. “I would expect there to be a service impact.”
On Monday night, the South Bay Labor Council’s executive board was expected to vote to sanction the strike. And on Tuesday, San Jose councilmembers will be meeting in closed session to discuss the wage negotiations.
The city’s last major strike in 1981 involved about 2,000 workers and drew national attention to the issue of equal pay for women employees. The nine day-long strike ended after the city council approved a $1.45 million pay adjustment for women workers.