Media contact: Jennie Smith-Camejo, (510) 710-0201, jennie.smith-camejo@seiu1021.org

“SEIU Local 1021 filed an Unfair Practice Charge today. In the Unfair Practice Charge, we asked the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) to void Proposition F on the ground that the City failed to provide the union prior notice or opportunity to bargain over the impacts of it before placing it on the ballot. We will also file a Request to Expedite, which asks PERB to put this case to the front of its queue due to the urgency of the matter.

“Proposition F will have significant adverse impacts on workers and the public alike. SEIU Local 1021 members remain steadfast in advocating for fair labor practices and the well-being of our community. At a time when City eligibility workers, social workers, healthcare workers, and other vital public service classifications are critically short-staffed, adding new requirements, processes, and responsibilities to their daily workload makes Proposition F all but impossible to execute fairly and consistently without substantial new investment in staffing, training, and worker safety. 

“Furthermore, in addition to stigmatizing poverty, it will have a chilling effect on San Francisco’s most vulnerable communities that all available clinical expertise and evidence indicates will result in increased homelessness, overdoses, and health emergencies with poor outcomes, which our members will be responsible for treating. All of this will further negatively impact City employees’ working conditions, not to mention exacerbating the very problems Prop F claims to address.

“We reserve the right to initiate legal proceedings and engage in collective worker actions to protest the City’s persistent unfair labor practices, up to and including an unfair labor practice strike. Any legal or job actions would be undertaken on behalf of workers and the most vulnerable residents of our city.”

– Theresa Rutherford, SEIU 1021 President