In March 2021 the City Manager and Council received a significant windfall totaling $67 million from the congressional COVID-19 bailout package known as the “American Rescue Plan Act.”

When Workers Needed it Most, City Denied Essential COVID Pay, and Opted to Give City Management Outrageous Bonuses

Later in summer 2021, the bargaining team sprung into action to claim a piece of the City’s bonanza by bargaining for so-called “Hero Pay” for frontline workers who put their lives on the line during the outset of the pandemic. After all, Congress explicitly intended that a portion of the money go towards making such workers and their families whole through retroactive one-time pay.

Yet, the City Manager and Council said ‘NO,’ citing the need to fund their own priorities, including giving the City Manager a 28% raise immediately following her signing our contract–without Hero Pay and featuring abhorrently low cost of living adjustments (COLAs).

Both Chapters Worked Together to Increase Total Pay to $3 Million

Fortunately, you and your co-workers are resolved to never face such humiliation again. You have been organizing since 2021 and the City is taking note. When workers organize, everyone benefits.

Our sibling union chapters, the Berkeley Maintenance and Clerical chapters, recently bargained for Hero Pay for their workers. The City Manager was forced to recognize that city workers in all unions performed essential work to sustain our community, and opened the Hero Pay up for all eligible City employees, including you.

Our Chapter recently teamed up with Maintenance and Clerical to increase the proposed Hero Pay amount from $2 million to $3 million at the Council Budget Committee.

Who is Eligible?

City HR has vaguely stated that the following workers are eligible:

(1) employees who worked on-site and in-person, without the option of telecommuting, from the onset of the pandemic until the City’s return-to-work directive; and (2) employees who were deployed as disaster service workers and performed work in the field that was directly related to pandemic response, such as COVID testing, during that same time period. Specific amounts will be determined once Council has approved the recommended funding and the pool of qualifying employees has been identified, at which time I [the HR Director] will reach out again. Our hope will be to effectuate payment early in the new year, as soon as administratively possible following Council approval.

Since we know that the City has a long history of cheating workers of their pay and benefits, it is critical that you get involved as part of an organizing effort to determine preemptively which workers from our Chapter should be eligible for pay.