Last year, management at the Tenderloin Housing Clinic shamefully cut off hazard pay, even as our members continued to serve clients amidst the pandemic. Even worse, they lied by telling us that they didn’t have the financial flexibility to continue the practice. Members got creative, though, and began brainstorming the next steps.

Knowing that THC’s funding is tied to the City and County of San Francisco’s budget, we began working with Supervisor Matt Haney’s office on a solution. Having political allies is important, but we also knew that nothing made us stronger than our collective power as workers. That’s why we took a delegation of about 15 workers to deliver a letter from Supervisor Haney’s office supporting our fight to management.

It worked. Management emailed our union saying they had been granted “flexibility regarding retroactive pay” by the City and County of San Francisco. Now, we’ll receive $5 more per hour going forward and are in negotiations around retro pay.

“We always knew the City would grant [Tenderloin Housing Clinic] this, but until now they’d decided instead to simply reject the idea of retro pay. They were wrong to send out that memo without considering what workers wanted. Workers came together and changed management’s calculation,” said Shop Steward Evan Oravec. “This is a win and we should celebrate. We never should’ve lost hazard pay last year, and this is a big step to correcting that wrong. We must also, though, remember that this is not the end. management will be sending the union some dates to meet and discuss the details of a retro payment. This will begin our negotiations with Management about the size and details of a retro payment. We need to be firm, clear, and stand together as workers in this process.”