City governments across the country are putting up the “Help Wanted” sign and are looking for workers in a range of fields, from public safety to sanitation.
The American Federation of State and County and Municipal Employees — also known as AFSCME — brought its national “Staff the Front Lines” tour to San Diego Wednesday, calling on people to apply for public service jobs.
“These are union jobs that come with strong rights, and they come with strong protections and these jobs are with a purpose — jobs that allow you to serve a cause greater than yourself,” said Lee Saunders, president of AFSCME.
AFSCME has 1.4 million members nationwide, serving in hundreds of different occupations.
“For the everyday heroes currently in public service, whose jobs are more difficult because they don’t have enough coworkers to help handle the load — we need to staff the front lines,” Saunders said. “More than 970,000 vacant jobs exist in the public service (sector) across the country and this program is designed to deal with that. Working with our friends, working with our elected officials.”
The elected officials include San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, who partnered with AFSCME Wednesday to get the word out about public service jobs in the city of San Diego, and the benefits of working for the city.
“I want to tell you that if you raise your hand and come work for the city of San Diego, not only will you get the daily opportunity to make your community a better place to live, but you’ll be rewarded with a good union job with fair pay, great benefits, job and retirement security” Gloria said.
He added that the city has restored pensions and improved child care assistance.
“We worked on a historic new contract that includes a 21% salary increase over the next three years with an additional 10% salary increase for the majority of our union membership,” said AFSCME Local 127 president Tim Douglass.
Epifanio “Rocky” Rios has been an electrician for 20 years and spent the last 12 years working for the city of San Diego.
“The city provides security — benefits working for the union. On the contracting side, you don't really get holidays (off) or if you miss time, you don't get paid,” Rios went on to say, “Working for the city, you obviously get those types of benefits. You get vacation days. There's tons of benefits to working for the city. Which is what I love about it.”
The “Staff the Front Lines'' bus will stop and hold recruitment events in more than 20 cities across the country this summer. The city of San Diego lists its available jobs online at sandiego.gov/jobs.
