About two years ago, the City and County of San Francisco, and specifically Mayor Newsom, instructed the Department of Public Works (DPW) to establish a new category of laborers, recruited from neighborhoods like the Fillmore and Bayview/Hunters Point, to clean city streets. DPW then fired dozens of San Francisco workers, most of them from those same neighborhoods, to hire new workers at half the wage. Many of the laid-off workers were categorized as "provisional workers," even though they had worked for DPW for three, eight, or more years.

Due to the organizing of these DPW workers, and with the support of the SF Labor Council and others, most of these workers have been reinstated to city jobs. Eleven of the laid-off DPW workers remain without their jobs. The Mayor refuses to meet with them and the Board of Supervisors is no longer advocating for them. The laid-off workers and their allies held a week-long hunger strike in front of SF City Hall. It began Monday and ended on Friday, August 25th. Organizers say that they need support to help stop union-busting in San Francisco, and they intend to organize until every DPW worker is put back to work. Video & Photos

Indybay's February 2005 coverage