In summary
Demanding better wages and a more flexible work-from-home policy, SEIU Local 1000 workers have voted to strike as the union negotiates with Gov. Gavin Newsom.
California’s largest state workers’ union says it’s ready to strike in the final months of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration.
SEIU Local 1000, which represents about 100,000 public workers, announced Thursday morning that its members had overwhelmingly authorized a strike, with 96 percent of people voting in favor of the strike. The union has set a strike day for October 21. He wants better wages, more affordable health coverage and more flexibility to work from home.
“This is an important step taken by state employees,” said union president Anica Walls. “They are exercising their right to stay the course and say we deserve to be respected, paid and protected for the work we do.”
The union’s contract expired on June 30. That’s pushing Newsom to offer a bigger raise and benefits increase than the administration has proposed. The union says the state has room to offer more, pointing to a $20 billion increase in general fund spending over the past two years.
The union also filed a complaint with the state’s Public Employment Relations Board, accusing CalHR, the state agency that handles collective bargaining on behalf of the administration, of bargaining in bad faith, delaying negotiations and outright rejection of the proposals. In late September, the board sided with the union and concluded that CalHR “refused to meet and consult in good faith.”
In response to the board’s findings, Angela Musallam, CalHR’s deputy communications director, said in an email to CalMatters that “the state has been and remains open to negotiation and is prepared to engage in mediation to help the parties reach an agreement.”
Musallam added that his goal “continues to be to reach a fair and responsible agreement, and we remain available at the negotiating table.”
A strike would be unprecedented for the union. It has never organized a statewide strike in the 44-year history of the union groups that over time coalesced into Local 1000. It came close to striking in 2016, but a last-minute deal with then-Gov. Jerry Brown avoided it.
The union represents nearly half of the state government workforce and includes a wide range of professionals, including nurses, clerks, program analysts, IT staff and custodians.
His last three-year contract gave workers represented by Local 1000 three successive 3 percent raises and many received additional special wage adjustments. The total contract was expected to increase state spending by $1.5 billion, according to estimates at the time.
A state budget crisis disrupted those plans. The deal was supposed to provide an additional 1% increase in 2025 if certain economic conditions were met, but the Newsom administration withheld that increase. Instead, unions agreed to temporary pay cuts in June 2025 that Newsom sought to balance the budget.
The cuts virtually canceled out the pay increase promised in the contract. Local 1000 also postponed until next summer an increase that was to take effect July 1.
As part of these agreements, civil servants received additional days off, which they will be able to cash in in the future.
If a strike occurs, some of the immediate effects on Californians could include delayed services at the DMV and state unemployment and disability insurance offices, Walls said.
“We actually make up less than 3 percent of the budget,” Walls said. “We’re doing all the work that ensures all the necessary benefits go to Californians who deserve them. And in order for us to continue to do the work we do, we just want the administration to negotiate with us in good faith.”
Asked if the union was likely to reach a deal with Newsom or if it planned to wait until after the election for his successor to step in, Walls said the union would stand firm either way.
“Administrations change, but our demands will not change,” she said.
