SAN FRANCISCO — Cementing its reputation as a progressive haven and further irking business groups, San Francisco has become the first city in the country to mandate paid sick leave for all employees.
The ballot measure, which hardly generated discussion here and passed with a resounding 61% of the vote, comes at a time when businesses are reeling from a city plan that requires employers to contribute to universal healthcare and a citywide minimum wage boost phased in over the last few years.
A similar wage boost failed to gain enough votes in Santa Cruz on Tuesday. Labor leaders and the grass-roots group of young service and restaurant workers who pushed San Francisco's sick leave measure celebrated the win Wednesday as another forward-thinking, trailblazing milestone.
"This is the first place in the country that's won paid sick days. It's a basic worker right and human right. We are just ecstatic," said Sonya Mehta, an organizer with Young Workers United, which prevailed after spending just $15,000 on the campaign. The victory carried a whiff of prideful vindication, given Republicans' recent derision of soon-to-be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her "San Francisco values."
"Those of us in San Francisco had to snicker a little bit," said Tim Paulson, executive director of the San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO. "We love the fact that San Francisco values for civil rights and worker rights have the opportunity to be expanded throughout the country -- as opposed to the corporate rights that our current administration thinks should lead the country."
Business groups reacted with anger and resignation. Steve Falk, president of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, called the measure "outrageous" -- largely because current law enabled just four of the 11 county supervisors to place it on the ballot without a public airing.
Kevin Westlye, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Assn., said that the passage was not surprising but that it added to a burdensome climate for business and particularly restaurants -- labor-intensive, low-margin operations that rely on entry-level workers.
"San Francisco voters have a history of voting social values, especially if the business community -- which is kind of an impersonal term for a lot of their neighborhood businesses -- has to write the check," said a grim Westlye, whose organization opted not to mount what it saw as a futile formal opposition. Business groups in the city will probably explore any "legal grounds of possibly challenging this," Westlye added.
