Supervisors hear workers’ accounts of intimidation at Felton Institute; management reads statement but declines to take questions

Supervisors of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ Budget & Finance Committee spent the bulk of their Oct. 26, 2022 meeting hearing testimony about labor disputes at the Felton Institute, a nonprofit that provides early care, mental health and social services and receives the majority of its funding from public sources.

SEIU Local 1021 organizers and more than a dozen current and former Felton employees testified that management engaged in anti‑union tactics, including surveilling organizers, calling police on peaceful rallies, disciplining or threatening employees who supported unionization and withholding voter‑approved Prop C wage increases from unionized staff. “They have been met with bullying, harassment, and unfair labor practices,” SEIU organizer Brandon Dawkins told the committee. Hector Jimenez Cardenas, the union’s field representative at Felton’s Bryant Street site, said the employer implemented Prop C increases for non‑union staff but refused to apply the same increases to union members under the same…