At Home with the Tenderloin Housing Clinic

First in a series of member and worksite profiles

by Randy Lyman

Talk about public service. Among the newest members of SEIU in the 1021 region are those of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, serving one of the Bay Area’s most destitute populations.

Staffing a dozen single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels in San Francisco’s gritty Tenderloin district, most of the 150 bargaining unit members don’t work in an office: They’re case workers, desk clerks, janitors, and maintenance people who often live in the hotels themselves. The hotels get funded in part through San Francisco’s Care Not Cash program for homeless people.

“We’re outsourced government workers,” said Sarah Sherburn-Zimmer (who goes by her childhood nickname, “Fred” — third from left in photo). She cited the long-time trend toward outsourcing and privatizing government work and noted where it’s heading. “We’re the changing face of the work force. Unless nonprofits are unionized, it will mean the end for our sector.”

A city employee doing what Fred does earns 50 percent more than she does, but higher pay was not the only reason she and her co-workers unionized last year. Rather, they viewed unionization inside a larger picture of change for social justice.

“The union is not just about protecting our jobs, but about making sure that our families and other working people have health care and affordable housing,” she said.

Organizing for change

Before joining SEIU, workers organized under the radar for five months, shopping around for a union to represent them. They chose then-Local 790 because it already represented city employees and offered a democratic culture.

“It was important for us to be listened to, and politically it made sense. Ninety percent of our funding comes from the city, and that’s who we negotiate with,” said Fred.

The workers did all their own organizing, and SEIU organizers helped with mapping worksites and providing a structure. In the end, 79 percent of the bargaining unit signed cards for recognition. They joined the union in March 2006 and had their first contract six months later.

More publicly, Housing Clinic members won a big victory in November 2006 with the re-election of Chris Daly—a long-time housing rights activist battling an anti-tenant challenger—to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Daly won the vote in District 6 by about 1,200 votes—the same number that a Tenderloin SRO volunteer campaign got to the polls on Election Day.

Not sitting still
These victories are just the beginning, and Housing Clinic members are involved at their worksites and their new union. The bargaining unit already has 12 shop stewards who attend Stewards Council meetings every week, and Fred, the chief shop steward, sits on the 1021 Member Advisory Committee.

“Being a union means more than better wages. The biggest thing we’ve won is respect—going to work every day and not being treated like crap,” Fred said. “It means we have the power to work on bigger issues and make a difference.”