California State Worker Strike: SEIU 1000 Stages First Walkout

A first for the union

On Wednesday, California's largest state employee union went on strike for the first time. Thousands of members of SEIU Local 1000 left their jobs for one day and picketed state buildings in Sacramento, Oakland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Bernardino and other cities.1113 The union represents about 100,000 workers, close to half of California's state workforce. It has been without a contract since its last agreement expired at the end of June.11 No strike in the 44-year history of the labor groups that merged into Local 1000 had gone this far. In 2016 the union came close, but a deal with then-Gov. Jerry Brown at the last minute called it off.9

The action was planned as a one-day stoppage, not an open-ended strike. Even so, it marks a clear break between Gov. Gavin Newsom and a labor movement that has usually backed him.11 Reporters described the crowds as "thousands" and "tens of thousands."713 Most coverage gave the union's membership as roughly 100,000, while the AP put it at more than 100,000.411

What the union wants

Outlets agree on the core demands. The union wants a 20% general raise over three years, structured as 7% in 2026, 7% in 2027 and 6% in 2028.5 It also wants the state to pay more toward health insurance, including new options for rural workers.5 Its third demand is a rollback or relaxation of Newsom's executive order requiring state employees to work in the office four days a week from July 1.4 The Sacramento Bee reported that union negotiators also asked for stipends for employees who must report in person.14

Local 1000 president Anica Walls framed the strike around cost of living. She said members need a contract that lets them pay for groceries, child care and rent.4 Rank-and-file workers on the picket lines mostly talked about the office mandate. A corrections department analyst told CalMatters that he commutes to Elk Grove only to sit in a cubicle. An industrial relations analyst described a three-hour daily round trip on public transit that makes it harder to care for her ailing mother.11

Background: cuts and vacant jobs

The anger behind the strike makes more sense in light of several years of budget cuts that landed on the state payroll. Coverage of the strike largely skipped this context.

In 2025, faced with a deficit larger than projected, the Newsom administration renegotiated with all 21 state bargaining units to lower payroll costs. The deals introduced personal leave programs and suspended retirement contributions. Those steps saved money at the time but created liabilities for later years.21 The Sacramento Bee reported that the concessions removed more than $700 million from the budget.24 According to CalMatters, the reductions largely cancelled out a raise the previous contract had promised. The administration also withheld a conditional 1% increase, and Local 1000 pushed another scheduled raise back to the following summer.9 State workers have taken pay cuts in three of Newsom's eight years as governor.11 That record explains Walls' line that the budget is balanced on state employees' backs.16

At the same time, the state has been cutting positions. In the 2025-26 budget, the governor and Legislature eliminated 4,994 vacant positions, saving about $360 million a year. The administration proposed 6,002 eliminations in total. Lawmakers objected to about 650 of them, including 349 environmental posts such as game wardens. The Legislative Analyst's Office cautioned that cutting vacant positions looks painless but can weaken departments' capacity over time. It noted that a job can sit empty because it is hard to recruit for, not because the work has gone away. Walls made the same argument a year earlier. She said vacancies are "real work that needs to be done" and that eliminating them puts more strain on the staff who remain.22

The pattern matters for how to read the strike. The members walking out are being asked to cover more work with fewer colleagues while their real pay has slipped. On top of that, they must now commute to offices that, by the state auditor's estimate, could cost taxpayers more than $200 million a year in space the state might otherwise give up.21 Taken together, the reporting suggests the walkout is about more than the size of this year's raise. Workers appear to want back some of what they gave up during the cuts.

Who is negotiating in bad faith

Both sides say the other is the problem. Local 1000 filed an unfair practice charge with the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) in July. It says the state turned down nine of 16 budget-related proposals on June 30, the day the contract expired, and cited a 2025 side letter as grounds for refusing new wage and benefit proposals.26 The union also says state negotiators told it there was "no money" for more compensation.2 PERB issued a formal complaint, which means it found the allegations substantial enough to proceed.14

CalHR, the state's human resources department, which bargains for the administration, tells a different story. It says the union would not negotiate unless the state gave ground on the four-day office mandate.14 KALW reported that state representatives have accused the union of bad faith too.6 In public, CalHR has said only that it remains "available at the bargaining table."1 It has largely declined to discuss details, citing confidentiality.2

The two accounts can both be partly true. The union reads a refusal to engage on telework and wages as stonewalling. The state reads the union's insistence on telework as a precondition. The office mandate, then, is not one demand among many. It appears to be what stalled the talks. Newsom made his position firmer last month by vetoing a union-backed bill that would have made agencies justify in-office requirements in writing.4 CBS described the vetoed measure as bipartisan and said it would have let each agency set its own telework policy.13

The legal fight and essential workers

The state tried to stop the strike. CalHR asked PERB for a temporary restraining order, arguing that impasse mediation should finish before any walkout. PERB rejected the request.14 The Guardian reported that the state also argued the union had not made plans to exempt essential workers, putting public safety at risk.1

Accounts differ slightly on how many workers were held back. The Sacramento Bee said about 4,400 employees, mostly in state hospitals and prisons, were barred from striking.14 The union and several outlets cited roughly 5,000 essential workers. CBS said they work in corrections, correctional health care, veterans affairs and Caltrans.113 In either case, about 95% of the bargaining unit was free to walk out. That gave the union real leverage, at least symbolically. Coverage said services were limited at DMV offices and state parks.16 Some reports also listed the Employment Development Department among the affected agencies.20

Money and a governor on his way out

The union says the state can afford its demands. It points to a $20 billion increase in general fund spending over two years and notes that its members make up less than 3% of the budget.9 The state's finances have been unstable. In January the governor projected a modest $2.9 billion deficit and said he did not plan to use employee pay to balance the budget again.21 That followed an LAO forecast of an $18 billion gap.24 By spring, reporting described a far larger structural problem of $35 billion a year starting in 2026-27. The January budget set aside about $261 million for raises and health costs across all bargaining.23 That is far below what a 20% raise for 100,000 workers would cost. Some conservative outlets stressed that taxpayers would pay for any settlement, while noting that no one has publicly estimated the total.10

Timing makes everything harder. Newsom leaves office in January and is widely expected to consider a 2028 presidential run.4 Walls has said the union's demands will not change with the administration.9 That signals Local 1000 is prepared to wait for the next governor if it has to.

What comes next

Most reports say mediation is scheduled to resume on Oct. 30.116 One outlet said CalHR had not immediately set new bargaining dates after the strike.20 The most likely explanation is that the mediation session is scheduled but formal bargaining is not.

What matters most is what this strike shows about the union's patience. A 96% authorization vote, a first-ever walkout and a union willing to outlast a sitting governor all point to members who will not accept more cuts.5 Sacramento has spent two years balancing its books through deferred raises and eliminated jobs. On Wednesday, a large share of the people who do that work refused to keep going along with it. Unless the state offers some movement on telework, a one-day strike is unlikely to be the union's last action.