Dozens of University of California San Francisco social workers gathered outside UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay on Thursday, demanding university leaders take urgent action to keep them safe after their colleague was stabbed to death on the job.
During the rally, social workers described a widespread workplace safety crisis that they said the university was ignoring. The event, organized by UPTE-CWA Local 9119, which represents more than 5,000 UCSF employees, came roughly three months after the killing of Alberto Rangel, a social worker at Ward 86, an HIV clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Following the demonstration, marchers crossed 16th Street to Mission Hall in an attempt to deliver a demand letter to Chancellor Sam Hawgood’s office.
A university representative told the group no one was available to receive it. A social worker handed over the letter anyway.
“My colleague was killed in front of us,” said Julia Pascoe, a Ward 86 social worker who presented the letter. “It’s been three months and one day, and no one has contacted us back to have a meeting about our safety.”
Survey findings
According to a survey released by the union Thursday, 90% of UCSF outpatient clinical social workers reported experiencing some form of physical, sexual, or verbal threat, assault or intimidation on the job. More than one in five reported being violently assaulted. Fifty percent said they had been sexually assaulted or harassed.
“Only 5% of those surveyed reported they had not witnessed or experienced any form of verbal, physical, or sexual assault or harassment,” said John Willard, a social worker who emceed the rally. “This is the everyday reality for my colleagues and myself.”
Street social workers know the job they’re signing up for is no picnic, but they expect their employer to take steps to keep them safe. Yet while 90% said they had reported safety concerns, respondents said management either did not address the concern, responded in what they characterized as a retaliatory manner, or acted only after an unreasonable delay 50% of the time.
Witness to the attack
During the rally, Alejandro Alvarez, a clinical social worker at Ward 86 who said he was present when Rangel was killed, spoke about physically intervening in an attempt to stop the attack.
“I made the decision in that moment knowing I could lose my life, and I was nearly killed,” Alvarez said. “What comes after that moment is not something you clock out of.”
Alvarez said a sheriff’s deputy assigned to the unit did not immediately intervene and had to be prompted by staff before acting — an account he said was corroborated by multiple eyewitnesses. He said the sequence of events contradicted the public narrative put out by the San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association and called on UC leadership to correct the record.
The sheriff’s department and UCSF did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Two-tier pay dispute
Workers also pointed to a pay disparity they said has driven turnover and contributed to unsafe conditions. Campus-based outpatient social workers earn on average 31% less than their hospital-based counterparts, Willard said, with fewer staffing resources and higher caseloads.
Tia Blackburn, a Ward 86 social worker who has been on medical leave since Rangel’s killing, said her caseload had exceeded 500 patients — a level at which adequate assessment of each client becomes impossible.
In UCSF hospitals, 41% of social workers have been with the university for seven or more years, Willard said. In outpatient public health settings, that figure is roughly half.
Security measures called insufficient
Workers acknowledged that the Department of Public Health implemented security upgrades at San Francisco General following the December killing, including weapons detection systems and increased security staffing. But they said those measures fall short of what is needed.
Blackburn said she has heard reports that individuals have still been able to enter the building with weapons despite the new equipment. She hasn’t returned to the clinic since the incident.
“It’s not enough,” she said. “Definitely not enough.”
Workers’ demands include enhanced safety protocols, reduced patient caseloads, equal pay for campus and hospital social workers, trauma-informed support for staff, and the direct inclusion of frontline workers in decisions about workplace safety.
“Funding alone does not equal safety,” Alvarez said. “We need transparency, we need accountability, and we need frontline workers at the table.”
Political support, institutional frustration
Three members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors — Connie Chan, Shamann Walton and Matt Dorsey — attended the rally and offered public support for the workers’ demands.
“It shouldn’t take one of our workers’ deaths to raise awareness for a safe working environment,” Chan said. She and Walton said they had each called UCSF directly in recent months to press the issue.
Dorsey, whose district includes San Francisco General, said Rangel had been a provider for his husband before they were married.
“If there is one thing I have learned in my time working in city government, it’s that the city and county of San Francisco — like UCSF — is an employer before it’s anything else,” Dorsey said. “We have to do our part to make sure that people are safe.”
Matias Campos, a UCSF social worker and union vice president, said workers have managed to secure meetings with Mayor Daniel Lurie and Public Health Director Daniel Tsai, but they still haven’t gotten a meeting with Chancellor Hawgood.
“UCSF as a system has not taken us seriously and has refused to meet with us,” Campos said.