City toilet cleaners want own place to go
San Francisco workers say it’s hard enough cleaning up after the homeless, but having to share toilets with them is too much to bear.
“We have to use the same Pit Stop toilets as the homeless. They are supposed to be sanitized between uses, but they never are,” said Theresa FoglioRamirez, business agent at the Laborers’ International Union of North America, Local Union 261, which represents about 350 of the workers.
“We want dedicated toilets, at least one in every one of the six work zones in the city so that we have a clean place to go to the bathroom and wash our hands,” FoglioRamirez said.
Interviews with several Public Works staffers, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, said that some of the 49 Pit Stop toilets installed by the city for use by the homeless and the public are at times downright scary.
FoglioRamirez pointed to an incident that occurred one morning in late August at the Cesar Chavez work yard, where some of the the portable toilets are parked overnight.
“Someone heard banging coming from one of the toilets. When they unlocked it, they
found a homeless man inside. He had been in the toilet all the way from the street to the yard,” she said. “If you are sanitizing after every use, how do you explain that?”
Public Works responded by saying there are toilets designated for employees in four of the six work zones, plus restrooms at parks and playgrounds, and that there are other public toilets. And that while some have been closed during the COVID19 shutdown, there are still 100 restrooms or Pit Stops available for workers in the field.
In an email, Public Works Deputy Director for Operations Larry Stringer, raised questions about the union claims.
Stringer said the department has asked the union for specific examples of toilet troubles multiple times, without success.
“Staff also has not raised concerns with their supervisors or department management,” Stringer said. “I personally have used the Pit Stops on multiple occasions and have not experienced unsanitary conditions, but if there are specific problems an employee sees, they need to bring them to management’s attention right away so they can be addressed.”
The union says it has complained but gotten nowhere.
In one instance, a female worker, who asked not to be named said she approached a Pit Stop toilet near Seventh and Mission streets.
“When I got there, this woman came out and she had open sores on her and no mask. I looked over and the attendant wasn’t wearing a mask, either,” the worker said. The Chronicle is granting the person anonymity in accordance with its anonymous sources policy.
Stringer said the department’s goal is for all of the toilets to be clean and well maintained.
“If there are specific incidences where that threshold isn’t met, we will make sure the problems are corrected, but we need to know about them,” he said.
As for the homeless man trapped in the toilet at the work yard, Stringer said, “There obviously was a breakdown in protocol when the unit was closed up for the day.
That should not have happened.”
As usual in San Francisco, there may be some politics at play here.
Come November, city voters will decide on a measure that would split street cleaning off from Public Works into a new department, complete with a civilian oversight commission.
The union supports the split.
“Instead of going to managers, we would be able to go in front of the commission, so things like this wouldn’t be brushed under the carpet,” FoglioRamirez said.
The toilet tempest will likely be used as ammunition in the debate over the ballot measure.
The first salvo was a letter the union wrote to Mayor London Breed and the Board of Supervisors this week.
“How can the city not provide clean, safe bathroom and hand washing facilities? It is inhumane for the City of San Francisco to treat its own employees and citizens this way,” the letter stated.
The union also stated that the lack of bathroom and hand washing facilities is not merely “an oversight or penny pinching by public works, but instead is direct retaliation for the union’s early complaints about corrupt practices in San Francisco’s Public Works Department.”
“We were among the first to blow the whistle on the Public Works Department and now disgraced department head Mohammed Nuru,” the letter continued. “Our early warnings about abuses and illegal activities played a role in the Department of Justice investigation of illegal City Hall contracts and hiring practices.”
Stringer called the talk of using toilets as retribution absurd.
Maybe, but that’s politics.
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phil Matier appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KGOTV morning and evening news and can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 4157778815, or email pmatier@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @philmatier