San Francisco unions protest billions paid to contractors
Unions representing San Francisco city workers gathered Tuesday to complain about the billions of dollars the city spends on outside contractors each year. They say some contractors charge up to $300 an hour for their labor, sometimes more than double the cost of hiring an in-house person, and that the city would be better off hiring more employees to fill their years Alleviate the staffing crisis.
“Why not give us this work and save the taxpayers?” said Jon Gausman, a junior engineer at the San Francisco Department of Public Works. “We’re not even staffed yet. We could attract more people.”
Shifting San Francisco from its long-standing reliance on outside contractors has become a focus for the coalition of 12 unions representing more than 25,000 city workers that are in the midst of contentious collective bargaining negotiations with city leaders. The specter of a full-scale strike has loomed over the city since unions began their fight over collective bargaining agreements last month, and could become a central sticking point in Mayor London Breed's bid to win re-election in November.
A June 2023 civil grand jury report found that the number of job vacancies in the city has more than doubled since the start of the Covid pandemic, causing Muni to run fewer buses, lower service levels in at local hospitals dropped and response times at the 911 call center skyrocketed. According to coalition spokesman Luke, in their negotiations with the city, the city workers' unions proposed that San Francisco reach full staffing in essential services by 2025, improve hiring processes based on the grand jury report, and balance the upcoming budget by reducing contracting and not Thibault should compensate by cutting vacancies.
According to Department of Human Resources spokesman Jack Hebb, there are currently 3,200 full-time job openings in San Francisco. That total represents a mitigation of the vacancy crisis, according to Hebb, who said the city's vacancy rate fell nearly 30% from January 2023 to January 2024. The city hired 700 full-time equivalent employees last year, bringing its total to 35,200, its highest ever, Hebb added.
