Police, fire unions OK tentative deal to delay raises

The leaders of labor unions representing San Francisco police officers and firefighters have reached a tentative agreement with the city to defer previously negotiated pay raises for two years, in an effort to help close the city’s $1.5 billion budget deficit brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

Mayor London Breed had called on all of the city’s labor unions to postpone $250 million in pay increases for the city’s roughly 37,000 workers that are set to kick in over the next two years.

Her recently unveiled budget proposal is balanced in part on the assumption that labor unions will agree to defer those raises, and she has said plainly that deeper budget cuts and layoffs were inevitable if the unions refused.

“We’ve been through this before, after the 2008 crisis, and we recognize the importance of working together as a whole city,” San Francisco Firefighters Local 798 Union President Shon Buford. said. “After some fact checks, basically we decided it was the right thing to do for the city, the citizens and for our members to defer our raises ... and help out.”

In exchange for deferring raises they expected next year, police officers will vote Friday on a contract extension that will pay them an additional 6% over several years. The city has agreed to that proposal.

“San Francisco police officers have always answered the call when our city has been in crisis, whether it be our outofcontrol homeless situation, openair drug markets, the COVID pandemic or our pending fiscal crisis,” Tony Montoya, president of the Police Officers Association, said in a statement. “Once again our officers are being asked to sacrifice, and they will make that determination at the end of the week.”

The police and fire union leaders need their members to vote on the pay deferrals. But if they do, it may create additional pressure on other unions to follow suit.

All city workers are set to receive a raise on Dec. 26. Most employees — nearly 35,000 — will get a 3% increase, and 2,300 police officers will get a 2% raise. Raises will total about $50 million in the 202021 fiscal year and $200 million the following year.

The city’s workforce has already deferred one batch of raises: A 3% pay hike — cumulatively worth $50 million — that was supposed to kick in this month but won’t show up in workers’ paychecks until the end of December.

Union leaders say they won’t agree to additional delays and that the city ought to compensate them for keeping the city running — sometimes at personal risk to their health — during the pandemic. They have also called on Breed to dip further into the city’s reserves.

Before the pandemic, the city had set aside about $1 billion in multiple reserve funds. Breed’s proposed budget would drain about half of that over three years, the most allowed under city law. That will leave about $500 million to address future risks — including the $1 billion deficit the city is projected to confront three years from now.

Breed said that remainder will be critical for addressing future concerns, including money that may be needed if the pandemic endures into next year.