![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/20230801-SJCityHall-15-JY_qed.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSan Jos\u00e9 and its two largest employee unions have tentatively agreed to a new contract.\n<\/p>\n
Oct 12, 2026<\/p>\n
Updated 4:31 pm PT<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Pedestrians walk past City Hall in San Jos\u00e9, California, on Aug. 1, 2023.www\u00a0(Juliana Yamada\/KQED)<\/p>\n
San Jos\u00e9<\/a> will avert a major workers strike<\/a> that threatened to affect a broad range of city services, as leaders are set to ink a deal with the city\u2019s two largest employee unions after months of stalled negotiations, officials said.<\/p>\n The Municipal Employees\u2019 Federation, AFSCME Local 101, and the City Association of Management Personnel, IFPTE Local 21, which together represent as many as 4,500 workers, have agreed to a tentative deal with the city, and the city council is expected to finalize the approval before the end of the month, officials said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Mayor Matt Mahan called it a \u201cgreat milestone\u201d for the city and its workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe got to a place where I believe and I certainly hope our workforce feels respected and valued and knows that we stretch to get them every dollar we can, while also giving assurance to our residents that their service levels will be maintained and over time increased as we hire more people and adopt technology and see the economy continue to grow,\u201d Mahan said in an interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to pay our workforce fairly and make sure people can afford to live in the community that they serve without sacrificing essential services from emergency response to library hours. And I think we struck that balance in this deal,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The three-year labor contract includes wage increases of 3% in each year, with the possibility of an additional 1% in the third year if the city\u2019s general fund meets a surplus threshold, according to the city. The deal also includes an immediate one-time bonus payment of 1% to help offset recent price increases and lays out safeguards on artificial intelligence use.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a statement, IFPTE Local 21 said the agreement \u201crepresents significant progress toward addressing workers\u2019 priorities, such as AI guardrails and employee retention, and securing a contract that recognizes and respects the workers who keep the city running.\u201d<\/p>\n The additional pay based on the city\u2019s budget and the bonus pay appeared to be the primary wage differences between the current tentative deal and the city\u2019s past offers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re being open and honest about our financial constraints. Our workforce is being very clear about what they need to be able to live and thrive here,\u201d Mahan said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t work in the long run if we make unsustainable commitments that force us to lay workers off or cut services for vulnerable residents and undermine faith in government.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n If both unions went on strike, it would have been the city\u2019s largest since 1981. The same two unions and the city also fought out wage disputes<\/a> in 2023, nearly leading to a strike before reaching the most recent contracts, which expired in June.\u00a0<\/p>\n KQED\u2019s Sara Hossaini <\/a>and Correspondent Guy Marzorati <\/a>contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Jos\u00e9 and its two largest employee unions have tentatively agreed to a new contract. Oct 12, 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-494101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/092526-VioletDaySJ-14-MC-KQED.jpg\")
San Jos\u00e9 Mayor, Matt Mahan, speaks at a press conference ahead of The Golden State Valkyries\u2019 second playoff run on Violet Day outside of San Jos\u00e9 City Hall in San Jos\u00e9 on Sept. 25, 2026.\u00a0(Miles Cull\/KQED)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/20230801-SJCityHall-21-JY_qed.jpg\")
Pedestrians walk past City Hall in San Jos\u00e9, California, on Aug. 1, 2023.\u00a0(Juliana Yamada\/KQED)<\/p>\n