San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has struck an early agreement with 10 city unions representing 24,000 municipal employees, offering a 12% wage increase between 2027 and 2031 along with a guarantee against layoffs through June 30, 2029. The four-year deal, still pending ratification by union members, arrives as the city prepares for future contract negotiations.
The agreement, reported by The San Francisco Standard, includes IFPTE Local 21 and SEIU Local 1021, two unions that represent San Francisco city workers.
The mayor's office says the wage bump will place covered workers on par with the 14% raise already secured by law enforcement. The agreement would cover four years and include wage increases for covered workers.
A Deal Rooted in the Police and Fire Contracts
The benchmark for this round of negotiations was set in spring 2026, when Lurie signed 14% multiyear wage increases for police officers and firefighters. On May 11, 2026, the mayor signed a four-year memorandum of understanding with the San Francisco Police Officers Association — following a similar tentative four-year agreement announced on March 25, 2026, by leaders of Fire Fighters Local 798 — granting 3% annual raises for three years and a 5% bump in year four, according to the City of San Francisco. Hoodline covered that police deal in an earlier report on the raise, and the firefighters' agreement in coverage from March.
Those agreements were discussed as a possible template for negotiations with non-public-safety unions like SEIU Local 1021 and IFPTE Local 21. Urban policy think tank SPUR reported in March 2026 that police and firefighter contracts govern nearly $1 billion in annual city spending — roughly 39% of San Francisco's discretionary budget — and warned that raises in those deals set the financial template for civil service negotiations across the rest of city government, per KTVU FOX 2.
Tension Over Layoffs Preceded the Offer
The new no-layoff guarantee stands in sharp contrast to where things stood just months earlier. In June 2026, Lurie presented a $16.9 billion two-year budget proposal that sought to close the city's deficit by eliminating filled and vacant positions, directing departments to trim roughly 500 jobs, according to KQED. That proposal prompted worker pushback, including concerns about proposed Department of Public Health clinic changes.
Those unions have shown a willingness to escalate before. SEIU Local 1021 joined a district-wide strike alongside San Francisco school teachers in February 2026, as thousands of students and workers walked out, Hoodline reported in its coverage of the school strike. By moving early, the mayor's office seeks to avoid a later contract fight.
Open Questions on Funding Remain
The agreement includes raises and a no-layoff provision. San Francisco has also faced budget matters related to its 2026 two-year budget proposal. The agreement is described as a tentative win for Lurie's dealmaking approach even as the city continues to face persistent budget deficits.
The fiscal backdrop is not simple. The city continues to face budget pressures.
Staffing shortages have also driven costs up elsewhere in the city budget. Overtime costs have risen amid staffing shortages. Lurie had already ordered a 22% reduction in police station overtime hours in March 2026 as those costs mounted.
The pattern is not unique to San Francisco. Labor tensions have also emerged in San Jose. How San Francisco ultimately pays for its own multiyear commitments remains an open question the mayor's office has yet to answer.
