San José Averts Strike With Tentative Labor Deal
San José will avert a major workers strike that threatened to affect a broad range of city services, as leaders are set to ink a deal with the city’s two largest employee unions after months of stalled negotiations, officials said.
The Municipal Employees’ Federation, AFSCME Local 101, and the City Association of Management Personnel, IFPTE Local 21, which together represent as many as 4,500 workers, have agreed to a tentative deal with the city, and the city council is expected to finalize the approval before the end of the month, officials said.
Mayor Matt Mahan called it a “great milestone” for the city and its workers.
“We got to a place where I believe and I certainly hope our workforce feels respected and valued and knows that we stretch to get them every dollar we can, while also giving assurance to our residents that their service levels will be maintained and over time increased as we hire more people and adopt technology and see the economy continue to grow,” Mahan said in an interview.
“We want to pay our workforce fairly and make sure people can afford to live in the community that they serve without sacrificing essential services from emergency response to library hours. And I think we struck that balance in this deal,” he said.
The three-year labor contract includes wage increases of 3% in each year, with the possibility of an additional 1% in the third year if the city’s general fund meets a surplus threshold, according to the city. The deal also includes an immediate one-time bonus payment of 1% to help offset recent price increases and lays out safeguards on artificial intelligence use.
In a statement, IFPTE Local 21 said the agreement “represents significant progress toward addressing workers’ priorities, such as AI guardrails and employee retention, and securing a contract that recognizes and respects the workers who keep the city running.”
“In a time of rising costs and economic uncertainty, our members showed up and made their voices heard, and stayed committed to making real progress that supports a stable workforce for our city,” Carlos Murillo, an airport engineer and a member of the IFPTE Local 21 bargaining team, said in the statement.
The two unions represent workers from a bevy of city departments, including librarians, city planners, wastewater facility supervisors, animal services officers, veterinarians and park rangers.
Wages were the biggest issue during eight months of negotiations, including periods of outright gridlock, union leaders said previously. In August, members of the two unions overwhelmingly voted in favor of a strike authorization for up to three days of work stoppage.
Since the strike vote, the unions and the city had been engaged in a process known as fact-finding, with a panel from the California Public Employment Relations Board reviewing the offers made by each side and making non-binding recommendations.
Previous public proposals showed the unions were asking for a 14% wage increase over three years, while the city had offered 9% in the same time frame.
The additional pay based on the city’s budget and the bonus pay appeared to be the primary wage differences between the current tentative deal and the city’s past offers.
“We’re being open and honest about our financial constraints. Our workforce is being very clear about what they need to be able to live and thrive here,” Mahan said. “It doesn’t work in the long run if we make unsustainable commitments that force us to lay workers off or cut services for vulnerable residents and undermine faith in government.”
If both unions went on strike, it would have been the city’s largest since 1981. The same two unions and the city also fought out wage disputes in 2023, nearly leading to a strike before reaching the most recent contracts, which expired in June.
KQED’s Sara Hossaini and Correspondent Guy Marzorati contributed to this report.