Local 261 and PEC Unions Unite to Stop Elimination of Citywide Seniority.

Union members packed the last Civil Service Commission meeting of the year to express our outrage over DHR’s underhanded attempt at sneaking a proposal to eliminate interdepartmental bumping for all permanent workers. With no notice to the unions and the Commission itself, DHR added this controversial item to the agenda just days before the Christmas Holiday, a time they expected no one would be paying attention. But they were wrong as hundreds of union members showed up to the Commission meeting and stood united in opposition to their proposal.

Jennifer Johnston, DHR Director for Public Policy, claimed the reform measure has been under discussion since 2005. Factually false, Local 21 Executive Director, Bob Muscat told the Commission that not only was this proposal an inexcusable sign of ill will on the City’s part, it was also a surprise to all parties. Further, it was timed to minimize opposition from City employees and their unions. Even the Commission’s vice president, Don Casper took issue with Ms. Johnston’s false claim. He traced in painstaking detail the full history of the civil service reform process. He substantiated that yesterday was indeed the very first time any mention of this proposal was made.

David De La Torre, Theresa Foglio, Dan Feerick & dozens of members from our Union, along with the other unions in the PEC, testified on the devastating effects that eliminating interdepartmental bumping would have on their careers and livelihood. One after another, angry and impassioned members stood at the podium and spoke of how City employees have always worked with the City in times of need (including our recent 4.62% pay cut) and how the proposal to eliminate Citywide bumping was a stab in the back of every one of the thousands of city workers that help keep San Francisco running. Members made note of how this proposal will push out older employees as well as employees with specialized skills that the city relies on. “We are City employees, not department employees,” one member told the Commission.

The only voices in support of the proposal came from various HR officials, including Vitus Leung from General Services Agency, Stephanie Cain from the SF School District, Robert Thomas from Human Services Agency and, of course, Ms. Johnston.

As the meeting ended, the Commission agendized the item once again, slated for their February meeting. All of the unions vowed to be back. Local 261’s position is simply that we are opposed to any consideration of eliminating Citywide seniority as they did for managers a few years back. We will talk about specific problems and ways to improve the system i.e. additional notice on layoff, etc, but we are not interested in any proposals that decrease employment security. In these times of high unemployment and other pressures on city employees, there is no need to even have this discussion.

After the holidays, we will be notifying all members about the February Civil Service Commission meeting.
(special thanks to IFPTE Local 21 for their press release.)