City workers urge council to press administration on stalled contract talks

Multiple city employees and union representatives told the council that contract negotiations with the city have stalled and that the consequences would reach residents if bargaining fails. Rachel Jamieson, a longtime Water Bureau analyst, described nine months of bargaining and said employees are being treated like their contributions are expendable: "If these employees are forced into a strike due to these delayed negotiations, the public will face serious immediate consequences," she said, listing impacts on violence-prevention analytics, bilingual water communications, recreation programs, and affordable-housing project work.