California state workers to vote on strike as contract talks with Newsom administration stall
By Darrielle Fair
California’s largest state workers’ union is preparing for a possible strike as contract negotiations with the Newsom administration remain unresolved.
SEIU Local 1000 announced Monday that its members will vote on whether to authorize an unfair practice strike, escalating a contract dispute that has continued since the union’s previous agreement expired June 30.
The union represents more than 100,000 state workers across multiple departments and agencies. Its members will vote from Sept. 9 through Oct. 7 on whether to authorize a strike over what the union alleges was unfair bargaining by the state.
“I know the power that we have when we fight together,” SEIU Local 1000 President Anica Walls said Monday. “We are using that power to demand what the law requires.”
Union officials said negotiations with the state began April 22, ahead of the June 30 expiration of the contract.
In July, SEIU Local 1000 filed an unfair practice charge with the Public Employment Relations Board, alleging the state failed to bargain in good faith.
Bobby Roy, the union’s chief negotiator, said the state rejected proposals from the union without making a counterproposal.
“A blanket rejection with no counterproposal,” Roy said. “It absolutely means that it’s an unfair practice.”
The union is seeking changes involving pay, health benefits and protections related to remote work.
“Give us affordable health care, and let us help modernize the way that we do our job and save Californians hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Walls said. “It’s really going to depend on when and if the new administration wants to bargain in good faith with us.”
The California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) said in a statement to CBS News Sacramento that it “does not comment on the union’s internal governance processes or the potential position of its membership.”
“The state will continue to bargain in good faith to reach an agreement,” CalHR continued. “If necessary, the state will explore all available options and implement those that reasonably protect critical public services.”
CalHR also confirmed that a strike authorization vote would not automatically mean workers would go on strike.
If union members authorize a strike, SEIU Local 1000 would still have to follow the applicable legal process through the Public Employment Relations Board before a strike could move forward.
SEIU Local 1000 has held a strike authorization vote before. In 2016, members authorized a strike, but the union and state reached an agreement just days before the planned walkout.
