In the first such action since 1981, the 4,500 municipal workers for the City of San Jose will strike from Tuesday through Thursday this week, KTVU Fox-2 in Oakland reports. Members of IFPTE Local 21 and MEF-AFSCME Local 101 voted by a 99% to 1% margin to authorize the strike.
Leaders of the unions say the city is facing a severe manpower shortage exacerbated by years of poor working conditions and low wages. The unions say the city’s poor recruitment and retention programs have overburdened an already stretched workforce.
Various city workers including librarians, emergency dispatchers, planners, animal shelter technicians and veterinarians, engineers, airport staff, water maintenance staff, architects, and others will stay off the job Tuesday in the first significant work action by the city’s municipal union since 1981. It will be the first time since the Oakland city workers walked out in 2017 that an entire city government operation has been the target of a strike that went beyond a school system or a utility union.