The San Diego City Council on Tuesday approved contracts with three city employee unions, offering workers raises but also requiring them to take unpaid time off.
The contracts cover the Municipal Employees Association, which represents white-collar employees, AFSCME Local 127, which represents blue-collar workers, and the Deputy City Attorneys Association.
The vote came a week after the Council adopted a budget for the coming fiscal year that slashed spending on libraries, parks and recreation centers. Some unionized employees in those departments are likely to lose their jobs if there are no other vacant positions they can be hired into, said Michael Zucchet, general manager of the Municipal Employees Association.
The contracts include general wage increases of 2% on July 1, 2026; 3.5% on July 1, 2027; 2% on July 1, 2028 and 2% on Jan. 1, 2029. Mandatory 40-hour furloughs will also be imposed in fiscal years 2027 and 2028.
Zucchet said wages for San Diego city employees are still catching up to the market rate, following a roughly 10-year wage freeze that began during the Great Recession.
"We have a city workforce that — despite certain headlines — is underpaid relative to what other employees working for cities in the county of San Diego, and certainly throughout the state of California, are paid," Zucchet said. "These are simply cost-of-living adjustments, and the reason we're doing it is so that we don't fall further behind in terms of our competitiveness with other jurisdictions."
Unions representing police officers, firefighters and lifeguards are still negotiating with city management. Their current contracts are due to expire at the end of the month.
