Newsom Return-to-Office Order Drives Strike Call by State Workers

A mandate that refused to bend

Gavin Newsom is in his final months as governor, and he has not backed off the policy that has done the most damage to his relationship with California's state workforce. The four-day return-to-office order took effect July 1 after a one-year delay. Since then he has vetoed a union-backed telework bill, and the state's largest public employee union has set its first-ever strike for October 21. Office attendance is no longer a side issue in his dealings with labor. It now sits next to pay cuts and job eliminations as one of three linked fights over how much state workers will absorb as California deals with its budget problems.

More than 245,900 people work for the state, and the California Department of Human Resources says roughly 108,000 of them are covered by the order. Most of the rest, including prison staff, firefighters, law enforcement and custodians, already work on site five days a week.1 Estimates of the affected group vary. Bloomberg reported that at least 90,000 employees went back to offices for most of the week, and a Sacramento Bee summary used a figure of 95,000.83 Every count puts the number in the high five or low six figures. In the Sacramento region, about one in six workers is a state employee.10

How office time became a bargaining chip

The 2025 deal is the starting point for understanding this year's fight. Newsom first issued the four-day order in March 2025 and aimed for July of that year.7 That spring the state was facing a $12 billion budget gap, and the governor wanted to cut about $767 million from payroll, mainly by holding back scheduled raises.20 His administration said it would impose reductions if bargaining did not deliver the savings.20

The two issues then merged. A week before the deadline, Newsom delayed the office mandate to July 2026 in agreements with three unions, and those agreements contained some of the payroll savings he had asked for.17 SEIU Local 1000, the largest of them, agreed to cancel out a 3% raise with five extra hours of unpaid leave each month.17 Accounts describe the trade differently. CalMatters frames it as offsetting a raise with leave, while later coverage citing CBS Sacramento calls it a 3% pay cut that runs through mid-2027 along with a deferred raise.1713 The Sacramento Bee summarized it as workers joining a leave program to lower compensation costs in exchange for another year of three remote days a week.2

Our reading is that the state traded one year of remote work for pay concessions. That makes it hard for the administration to argue that in-person work is an "operational necessity," a point labor leaders were raising as early as 2025.17 Once the pause ran out, the concessions stayed in place and the mandate took effect anyway.

Job cuts, mostly by attrition

The job-cuts side of the story differs from what has happened in the private sector and in parts of the federal government. California has eliminated positions mainly by deleting empty ones, and the people in filled jobs have been protected. In 2024 the Finance Department told agencies they could not use layoffs or early retirement to hit their savings targets.37 Union contracts generally bar layoffs and pay cuts, so vacancies were the easiest place to cut.14

The totals are still large. The administration first set a target of about 10,000 vacant positions, then cut roughly 6,500 after it exempted public-safety and 24-hour-staffing roles.32 The 2025-26 budget removed another 4,994 vacant positions, saving about $360 million a year, and the Legislature got more time to review roughly 1,000 more.35 Lawmakers later objected to eliminating 650 of those positions, many of them in environmental departments.35 The administration's 2026-27 budget still counts savings from the full proposal of 6,002 positions.3135

The effects on services are a matter of dispute. The Legislative Analyst's Office has warned that a position sitting empty does not mean the work is unneeded, and that cutting such jobs could weaken game warden enforcement, permitting and water-quality regulation.35 At a Senate hearing, Fish and Wildlife leaders said their proposed loss of 164 positions would reduce permitting and enforcement capacity.34 SEIU's Anica Walls said earlier that eliminating vacant roles adds strain on current staff and lowers morale.32

This is where the job cuts and the office mandate connect. A smaller workforce with fewer future hires is now being told to spend more time commuting. Assemblymember Alex Lee has warned that the state may struggle to keep good employees, and the union-backed telework bill was pitched in part as a recruitment and retention tool.64

The evidence gap

Critics keep returning to one question: what data supports the mandate? The California State Auditor reported that the Governor's Office never gave auditors the performance or productivity data behind the decision, and the administration has not produced any evidence since.3 The audit estimated that telework could save California up to $225 million a year in office space costs.7 Union representatives say officials appointed by Newsom told auditors that remote work produced better and more efficient results.1

The administration says in-person work improves collaboration, mentorship, supervision and accountability.2 Newsom has also said it will help revive downtown Sacramento's small businesses.57 The governor's office has not said what the return will cost.3 During the 2025 budget hearings, officials admitted they had no rough estimate of the cost of bringing workers in four days instead of two.17 Newsom's May letter to cabinet secretaries said 98% of departments had enough space, and the Bee has reported that it is unclear how the administration reached that number.23

The mandate also puts California out of step with other states. CalMatters found it stricter than policies in several Democratic-led states with strong public unions, including New York, Illinois and Washington, which still allow some remote work. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott dropped his own remote-work ban after three months.1 Nevada and New Mexico do require five days in the office, so California is not the strictest state, but it stands apart from its usual peers.7

Legislature sides with workers, governor vetoes

Unions tried protests, legal complaints and legislation, and none of it stopped the order.3 Assembly Bill 1729 would have made departments justify in-office requirements in writing and required a public dashboard on the cost-effectiveness of telework.4 It passed the Senate with more than the two-thirds vote needed, which suggests real legislative support.9 Newsom vetoed it in September.4 Even if he had signed it, it would not have overturned his executive order.3

The labor board has backed the unions more often than the governor has. In 2025 it found that the state appeared to have failed to bargain in good faith over the mandate.2 In June 2026 it issued a complaint on SEIU's unfair practice charge about the order.9 In late September it found that CalHR had "refused to meet and confer in good faith" in contract talks, according to CalMatters.23 One outlet says some reports describe that finding differently and that the exact wording should be confirmed.25

The October 21 test

SEIU Local 1000 represents about 100,000 workers, close to half the state workforce. Its contract expired June 30.23 Of members who voted, 96.2% approved a one-day "unfair practice strike."22 The union is asking for a 20% raise over three years, lower health care costs, telework flexibility and stipends for in-person work.13

The two sides disagree about why talks stopped. CalHR told the labor board that SEIU will not come back to the table unless the state moves away from the four-day requirement.22 The union says it is waiting for real offers on telework and on pay.3022 CalHR has said SEIU, not the state, is responsible for the lack of negotiations since July 29.27 The state then asked the labor board to block the strike, calling it coercive, and the parties are still arguing over which essential workers must stay on the job.2529 Mediation was scheduled before the walkout date.30

The last time this union got this close, in 2016, a last-minute deal with Jerry Brown called off the strike.25 This time the governor has less reason to make a deal. Newsom leaves office soon, and some workers have openly hoped to wait him out and bargain with his successor.2 Walls said demands "won't" change when the administration does.23

What it means

Our assessment is that the return-to-office order is now the most visible piece of a broader cost and control agenda that also includes thousands of eliminated vacancies and two years of compensation concessions. Workers who accepted pay restraint in exchange for remote work now have the restraint and the commute. That explains why office attendance, which is usually a workplace-policy issue, has led to the union's first strike call. Newsom appears willing to finish his term with the confrontation unresolved, which means the next governor will be the one to settle telework.