Our Registered Nurse bargaining team has signed a Tentative Agreement (TA) for a new RN contract with the City and County of San Francisco. The TA includes progress on many of the priorities identified by members and your elected bargaining team: recruitment and retention of nurses, chronic understaffing, safety, and over-reliance on temps and travelers.

In the coming days, we’ll be hosting worksite meetings to give members an opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the agreement. Only members will be eligible to attend these meetings and vote on whether or not to ratify our new agreement. If you’re not a member, you can sign up here.

The ratification vote will be held electronically using ElectionBuddy from June 9 – 15. You can download a summary and also the full language of each item in the tentative agreement here.

Voting Schedule

• June 9 at 9 am: voting opens
• June 15 at 4 pm: voting closes
• Evening of June 15: results announced

TA Summary

1. Wage increase: A 10% wage increase over 2 years. This is the highest across-the-board pay increase San Francisco City workers have achieved in the last 18 years and would not have been possible without solidarity and cooperation across San Francisco’s other public sector unions.

   • Year 1: 5.25% on July 1, 2022
   • Year 2: 2.50% on July 1, 2023* and 2.25%* in Jan. 2024 (*6 month offramp in case of a $300+ million deficit)
   • Positive results with our pension fund mean the contribution made by employees will be reduced by around 1% (meaning you will see an additional 1% increase in your check).
2. Retention and step equity: In addition to the above wages increases:
   • Effective July 1, 2022: Steps 3-5 will be increased by 1%. Steps 6-10 will be increased by 1.5%
   • Effective July 1, 2023: Steps 6-10 will be increased by another 0.5%.
3. Bilingual pay: New language to make easier access to bilingual pay. Bilingual tests will rotate through the work sites until the test becomes remote.
    
4. Charge nurse pay: Improve access to charge nurse pay by removing the 4-hour minimum previously required to qualify.
    
5. Staffing: We secured a significant amount of new language and budgeted positions:
   • 58 new FTEs added to the budget to address short-staffing, including:
     • SFGH:
       • Adding 20.6 FTEs to med/surg
       • Adding 10.4 FTEs to the ED for Resus.
       • Add a second break relief nurse in the Birth Center.
       • Maintain a ratio of 1:5 in Psychiatry 7C.
       • Maintain 3:1 in Pod A in the ED.
       • Increase PACU day shift core staffing from 10 to 11 per day.
     • Laguna Honda: Adding 10 FTEs for Laguna Honda.
     • Primary Care: Adding 2 FTEs for float pool.
     • Jail Health: Adding 3 permanent nurses
6. Missed breaks: Nurses who miss their 15-minute rest period will be entitled to overtime for that time. This will create a financial cost to DPH for understaffing and help us track how widespread missed breaks are.

7. License reimbursements: Nurses won’t have to submit for reimbursements, they will instead be automatic, paid in 2 increments at the end of the first quarter of the fiscal year.

8. Tuition reimbursement: Funds increased to $300,000, allowing each nurse to request up to $6000. This is intended to address the tuition costs of RNs trying to get an advanced degree.

9. Hiring, staffing, and filling vacancies: 

   • Within 30 days of ratification, management and the union will meet to work on changes to civil service rules that will make it easier for P103 and TEX to become permanent employees and to ensure P103 and TEX workers get preference in hiring. P103s who become 2320s will retain their anniversary date for purpose of step advancement.

   • Employees in non-nursing classifications who want to become nurses by participating in City workforce development programs will get priority appointment for new grad programs.

   • The Laguna Honda new grad program will be expanded to four spots per year.

10. Classes and committees:

    • Union designees will be created on committees to develop acuity tools.

    • Nurses will be released from work duties during work hours to complete mandatory classes or will get paid hours outside of work to complete them.

    • A new workplace violence prevention committee for all of DPH, to work on developing safety protocols and training for the entire system.

    • Nurse Practitioners will work with the administration to create new advanced practice leadership roles.

11. Parking: ZSFG PM shift parking pilot from 2019 will be made permanent.

12. Reduced req positions: We clarified that reduced req positions are posted using the same method for shift bids. The union and management will also meet to negotiate expanded access to reduced req positions.

13. Mental health support: An impaired nurse with a substance use issue will be eligible for interactive process and reasonable accommodation.

14. Holidays: We made advancements in a number of areas:

    • Juneteenth will be added as a paid holiday.

    • Clean-up language has been added to improve access to holiday pay for part-time employees.

    • 8-hour night shifts in med/surg will be paid holiday pay for Xmas Eve and NYE

15. Telecommuting: Telecommuting policies will be made permanent. Telecommuting will also be
          available for admin time for NPs or other nurses who have regular admin time.

Zoom & Worksite Meeting Schedule

Systemwide Zoom Meetings

• Thursday, June 9
  1600 – 1800
  Link
   
• Saturday, June 11
  0830 – 1030
  Link
   
• Monday, June 13
  1100 – 1300
  Link

In-person tabling – SF General hospital

• Look for SEIU 1021 staff and member leaders near the main entrance

  • Thursday, June 9
    1300 -1500
     
  • Monday, June 13
    1300 -1600
     
  • Tuesday, June 14
    All day
     
  • Wednesday, June 15
    All day

In-person tabling – Laguna Honda

• Wednesday, June 8
  11:30 am – 12 pm
  12:30 pm – 1 pm
  Location TBA
   
• Thursday, June 9
  1:00 – 1:30 am
  7:00 – 7:30 pm
  7:45 – 8:15 pm
  Location TBA

About ElectionBuddy

Click here to watch a tutorial explaining how ElectionBuddy works.

ElectionBuddy is a safe, secure, and easy-to-use tool for online voting that has been tested by the Department of Labor and used in multiple elections across SEIU 1021 already.

ElectionBuddy uses our list of eligible voters to issue ballots by email and text message so that members can vote from their computer or phone. It also uses encryption to keep all information completely confidential. You’ll receive a link to your ballot via text and email prior to the vote opening.

In order to guarantee that you receive your ballot for bargaining team elections in a timely fashion, it’s important to make sure that your contact information is up to date. To update your contact information, contact the Member Resource Center Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 1-877-687-1021.