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SF BUDGET CRISIS MEANS BUSY YEAR FOR SF LIVING WAGE
At its January membership meeting, the
Living Wage Coalition voted to pursue an aggressive legislative strategy in
2008 including major campaigns to protect and increase wages of workers covered
by San Francisco's living wage laws, to cover more San Francisco workers and to
reform the Community Jobs Program.
Budget cuts at all levels of government
threaten wages and benefits of workers. A major struggle will be protecting the
annual cost-of-living increases for those San Francisco workers covered by the
City's Living Wage law. Mayor Newsom has already announced $18 million in
mid-year cuts - with more to come. On February 19, the Living Wage Coalition
joined SEIU Local 1021 and the People's Budget Coalition in protesting these
cuts. This will require a great deal of time and effort in the coming months.
The other groups of workers that the Living Wage
Coalition Is campaigning to cover include employees of any business on
City-owned property and workers in Community Benefit Districts (CBD). The
Coalition is discussing with other organizations strategies to negotiate
Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs) directly with developers that ensure living
wage standards cover everyone who works on a subsidized project and that the developer
commits to maximizing the number of living wage jobs in tenant businesses in
the development.
In 1999, the Community Jobs Program (CJP) was established
in an agreement between the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition and then-Mayor
Willie Brown. This program was intended to provide living wage work for those
wishing to exit workfare (CAAP and CALWORKs) while providing the type of
experience that would qualify one for permanent City employment.
However, since no controlling legislation was ever passed
to guide this program, it has been difficult to uphold these standards and
track progress. The Living Wage Coalition will be asking Supervisors to use the
City's monitoring and research resources to track the CJP programs results and
to pass controlling legislation.
The Living Wage Coalition is also investigating whether to
pursue legislation that would credit participants in City sponsored programs
such as Project 20 with the SF Living Wage minimum rate. As it is now, Project
20 participants are credited with the rate of $6 per hour. These are persons
from all walks of life working off parking tickets doing community service.
If the Living Wage Coalition agenda includes an area of
special interest to you, contact us. Help make it happen.
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