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DESCRIPTION:Oakland City Workers, Community Organizations Protest to Expose Severe 
 Understaffing \n\nBernie Sanders Lends Support to City Workers, Says 600 
 Vacancies Not Acceptable\n\nOakland, CA – On Wednesday, September 25, 
 hundreds of Oakland city workers, and community leaders will hold an 
 informational picket and rally to demand that the City Administration 
 address alarming staff vacancy rates in city departments and take action to 
 improve the retention of city staff in the face of starved city services. 
 \n\nThis month, Senator Bernie Sanders, 2020 U.S. Presidential Candidate, 
 in a tweet offered his support behind the City of Oakland Workers fight to 
 fill hundreds of vacant city positions: “I stand with the 3,000 SEIU 1021 
 and IFPTE Local 21 public servants fighting to provide quality city 
 services to the residents of Oakland. It's unacceptable that 600 positions 
 are currently unfilled.”\n \nIFPTE Local 21 and SEIU 1021, the labor 
 unions that represent more than 3,000 City of Oakland workers, and 
 community leaders will expose the severe understaffing affecting Oakland 
 residents at a noon event at 14th and Broadway in downtown Oakland. \n 
 \nThe event marks the almost nine months into the 2019 collective 
 bargaining fight between the City of Oakland and nearly 3,000 of its 
 employees represented by SEIU 1021 and IFPTE Local 21—including 
 engineers, librarians, planners, transportation and public works staff, 
 street paving and cleaning crews, 911 dispatchers, neighborhood service 
 coordinators, housing services staff, and Head Start program coordinators. 
 Both unions’ contract expired on June 30, 2019 after City Administration 
 failed to reach an agreement.\n---------\n\nWho: Hundreds of City Workers 
 represented by SEIU 1021 and IFPTE Local 21, Oakland Tenants Union, Oakland 
 Rising, EBASE, Causa Justa/Just Cause, East Oakland Collective, Alameda 
 Labor Council, UNITE HERE Local 2850, ACCE, East Bay Housing Organizations, 
 Oakland Education Association, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists\n\nWhen: 
 Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019, 12pm-1pm\n\nWhere:  14th St. and Broadway in 
 Downtown Oakland\n\n---------------\nAfter months of aggressive 
 union-busting tactics from the Oakland City Administration, and years of 
 understaffing, Oakland city workers are at a boiling point. The Mayor and 
 City Administration have not shown a willingness to reach a fair contract 
 that addresses city workers’ core issues: the high cost of living in the 
 Bay Area, chronic understaffing that endangers vital city services and the 
 protection of key benefits and civil service rights.\n \nThe Oakland City 
 Administration failed to reach an agreement before June 30, and Oakland 
 city workers are currently working with an expired contract. Both IFPTE 
 Local 21 and SEIU 1021 have filed Unfair Labor Practice charges against the 
 City Administration for sending retaliatory emails threatening layoffs, and 
 for prematurely declaring impasse in the middle of bargaining.\n \n“We 
 are ready to sit down with the City and reach a fair agreement that 
 improves public services anytime,” said Felipe Cuevas, City of Oakland 
 heavy equipment mechanic and SEIU 1021 Oakland Chapter President. “The 
 only thing getting in the way is the City being unwilling.”\n \nOakland 
 is facing a crisis. Our communities are being starved of city 
 services.\n\n“We’re severely understaffed, and have more than 600 
 vacant positions. That’s 600 people who are not filling Oakland’s 
 potholes, preventing residents from getting evicted, paving streets, or 
 helping our homeless population. We’re doing the work of 2 to 3 people, 
 sometimes 4 or 5. And we’re underpaid. But we stay because we love 
 Oakland,” said Cuevas.\n \n“Civil service rules were created so our 
 city isn’t riddled with nepotism, favoritism, and discrimination. They 
 provide the basis for a professional, diverse workforce by ensuring hiring 
 and promotions are based on merit rather than who you know.  But this City 
 Administration, they’re trying to gentrify not just our neighborhoods, 
 but also our city’s workforce by trying to weaken these important civil 
 service protections.” said Anthony Reese, a City of Oakland real estate 
 agent and Oakland Vice-President of IFPTE Local 21.\n \nAt a time when we 
 are facing a housing and homelessness crisis, per the City’s most recent 
 staffing report from April 2019, our Housing and Community Development 
 Department is nearly 23% understaffed. Our streets need fixing, and our 
 Transportation Department is 24% understaffed. Our roads are riddled with 
 potholes, and our Public Works Department is almost 19% understaffed. 
 (Semi-Annual Staffing Report, City of Oakland, April 22, 2019)\n\nOakland 
 city workers are constantly doing the jobs of 2 or 3 people, and their 
 colleagues are constantly leaving for other jurisdictions, where the 
 workload is more reasonable and the pay is better. These jurisdictions go 
 beyond San Francisco; smaller jurisdictions like San Leandro, Concord, and 
 Berkeley typically pay better than the City of Oakland.\n \n###\nSEIU 1021 
 represents over 60,000 employees in local governments, schools, non-profit 
 agencies, health care programs, and special districts throughout Northern 
 California, including more than 2,000 City of Oakland workers.\n \nIFPTE 
 Local 21 represents more than 10,000 public workers in the Bay Area, 
 including nearly 1,000 employees of the City of Oakland. Local 21 
 represents professional and technical employees such as architects, 
 engineers, scientists, and planners. \n\n>>>>>>\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2019/09/24/18826652.php
SUMMARY:Oakland City Workers, Community Organizations Protest to Expose Severe Understaffing
LOCATION:14th St. and Broadway in Downtown Oakland
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2019/09/24/18826652.php
DTSTART:20190925T190000Z
DTEND:20190925T200000Z
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