Employees in two county labor unions will get a chance to seek pay increases if a proposed sales tax hike championed by the county’s largest union prevails in November.
The county Registrar of Voters is now vetting signatures for the half-cent sales tax measure to decide if it’ll qualify for the ballot. If it lands on the ballot and voters approve it, the measure could pull in $360 million annually for healthcare, child care, Tijuana River sewage solutions and public safety. It would also reopen labor talks for the Service Employees International Union Local 221, which is leading the charge on the measure and represents thousands of county workers.
SEIU Local 221 and Teamsters Local 986, which represents construction and maintenance workers, both have clauses in their labor deals triggering reopened pay negotiations if voters approve a measure that “generates revenue for the county’s general fund in 2026.”
Both deals call out a sales tax proposal as a possibility. The deals also included clauses that last year led the county to dole out bonuses to workers after a board majority voted to change the county’s reserve policy to unleash more of its rainy-day funds.
County supervisors approved the labor deals as they prepared for upcoming federal cuts and grappled with both economic uncertainty and new costs from the criminal justice reform measure Proposition 36. Now they are preparing for the release of Chief Administrative Officer Ebony Shelton’s budget proposal, which is expected to include budget cuts.
Crystal Irving, president of SEIU Local 221, wrote in a statement that the sales-tax initiative ensures funds it raises only go to the line items identified in the measure and that staffing shortages and low wages could only worsen the healthcare and safety net challenges the county is confronting.
“To protect San Diego County, we need to recruit and retain the nurses, educators, social workers and first responders who keep our communities healthy and safe — and that means paying working people decent wages,” Irving wrote. “But right now, our focus is 100% on protecting San Diego County from Trump’s healthcare cuts and the sewage crisis — not contract negotiations.”
Both Irving’s statement and SEIU Local 221’s response to a recent county staff vacancy update hint that the union may focus most on getting wage increases for workers in county roles and departments with significant vacancies rather than seek across-the-board raises.
During a board briefing last week, SEIU member Sara Nielsen highlighted a 14.1 percent vacancy in county health services roles that she said was much higher for certain roles.
“Given both the overall vacancy rates and the severity of shortages in specific classifications, we urge the board to closely monitor these trends and take proactive steps to address recruitment, hiring, and retention challenges before conditions worsen further,” Nielsen said.
Teamsters Local 986, which has not publicly rallied behind the proposed sales-tax hike, did not respond to requests for comment this week about the clauses in its labor deal.
Most county officials also avoided commenting on the deals or what might come next.
A spokesperson for Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer, a vocal backer of the sales-tax initiative who also voted for the labor deals, directed Voice of San Diego to instead send questions to the top county bureaucrat since “the CAO negotiates the labor contracts.”
Yet supervisors including Lawson-Remer give direction to county officials on labor talks and ultimately approve labor deals, as they did last year prior to Supervisor Paloma Aguirre’s arrival on the Board of Supervisors in July.
Aguirre’s office provided a statement, noting that she was not involved in last year’s labor talks.
“It would be premature to comment on specific outcomes or contract clauses at this time that are contingent upon the passage of a future ballot measure,” Aguirre spokesperson Diane Castaneda wrote in a statement. “Her immediate focus remains on addressing her district’s urgent budget priorities, including navigating potential HR 1 cuts and securing the necessary funding for the Tijuana River Valley crisis.”
Supervisor Joel Anderson declined to comment while spokespeople for Vice Chair Monica Montgomery Steppe and Supervisor Jim Desmond didn’t respond.
County spokesperson Tammy Glenn, who responds on behalf of county officials, shared a link to the labor deals with Voice and said it was too premature to comment.
“With many factors outstanding on the proposed measure, there’s nothing to add at this time,” Glenn wrote.