SF workers rally against layoffs, Prop D cuts at SF General Hospital

Hundreds of city workers and union members gathered outside San Francisco General Hospital as San Francisco’s budget battle sharpened into a fight over who will lose service first: patients, seniors and neighborhood residents, or the city workforce that delivers those services.

The protest came after the city had already sent 127 layoff notices across 18 departments, part of Mayor Daniel Lurie’s plan to eliminate about 500 positions and save roughly $100 million in personnel spending. Some of the cuts are expected to come from vacant jobs, but officials have also acknowledged that filled positions are being eliminated, putting real jobs and real services on the line.

Workers said the impact is already visible in places like San Francisco General, Laguna Honda Hospital and the Department of Public Health, where entire teams have received layoff notices. Unions including SEIU 1021 and IFPTE Local 21 argued that the cuts will hit seniors, health-care patients and other vulnerable residents long before City Hall closes its books. Labor leaders also pushed the city to use reserves and support Prop D, which SEIU 1021 says could generate up to $300 million a year to help offset federal tax-cut effects.

Lurie has defended the layoffs as “painful but necessary” as his administration tries to close a budget gap that has been described in recent reporting as about $643 million over the next two years, though other city forecasts put the shortfall closer to $877 million or nearly $1 billion depending on assumptions. City budget documents have tied the pressure to rising salaries and benefits, federal funding uncertainty and a larger structural deficit that will stretch across multiple fiscal years.

The city’s five-year financial plan underscores how deep the squeeze has become, and why layoffs, reserve use, contract cuts and ballot measures are now part of the same political fight. The full budget proposal from Lurie is expected by June 1, 2026, and it will still need approval from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

The rally also exposed a political divide over Prop D. The 2026 measure is a business-tax proposal tied to top-executive pay ratios, not the older 2024 commission-reform measure. Labor groups are treating it as one of the few tools available to protect services while the city trims spending. For workers at San Francisco General and across City Hall, the dispute is no longer abstract. It is about whether the next round of cuts shows up as longer waits, thinner staffing and slower public services in the neighborhoods that depend on them most.