SEIU Local 1000, which represents nearly 100,000 state employees, authorized a one-day strike for October 21 after months of stalled contract negotiations, accusing the Newsom administration of refusing to bargain in good faith.Members of California’s largest state workers’ union, SEIU Local 100 0, overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike, with 96% of those who voted supporting a one-day walkout on October 21, as the Sacramento Bee reports. The vote gives union leadership the authority to call the strike after the state workers’ contract expired July 1 and negotiations stalled for more than two months. According to CalMatters, the union is seeking larger raises, more affordable health care, and greater flexibility to work from home. It has proposed a 20% pay increase over three years, along with stipends for employees who are required to work in person. The union argued that the state has room to offer more, as general fund spending increased by about $20 billion over the past two years.The union now says the state has been unwilling to seriously negotiate over its new proposals. SEIU filed a complaint with the Public Employment Relations Board accusing the California Department of Human Resources, or CalHR, of delaying negotiations and rejecting proposals without bargaining over them. Per CalMatters, the board determined in late September that CalHR had “refused to meet and confer in good faith.”CalHR has rejected that characterization. Angela Musallam, the agency’s deputy director of communications, said the state remains willing to negotiate and is prepared to enter mediation, while pointing to the union's refusal to budge on Newsom’s four-day, return-to-office mandate. SEIU Chief Negotiator Bobby Roy said in September that the union would return to negotiations if the state presented a meaningful offer, including movement on compensation and other issues beyond telework, per the Bee.The current fight also follows a 2025 budget agreement in which state workers accepted some temporary concessions. Their previously negotiated 3% raise took effect July 1, but a 3% Personal Leave Program deduction was also imposed, reducing gross pay in exchange for five hours of personal leave each month. The state then suspended employees’ 3% contributions toward future retiree health care costs, while a second 3% raise scheduled for July 2026 was pushed back to July 2027.A strike would be the first statewide walkout in the 44-year history of the labor groups that eventually became Local 1000, as CalMatters reports. The union came close in 2016, but reached a last-minute agreement with then-Governor Jerry Brown that prevented a strike. The state worker union representing scientists, CAPS-UAW, was the last major state employee union to strike, in 2023.Local 1000 members, who include nurses, clerks, program analysts, IT workers, custodians, and other state employees, are reportedly not required to participate in the strike. Workers who do participate would not be paid for the time they are out, although the union maintains a strike fund for expenses such as legal costs if members face retaliation.A walkout could affect state services, and union President Anica Walls has warned of possible delays at DMV offices and unemployment and disability insurance agencies, per CalMatters.“This vote is a notice to the Newsom administration that if they continue to bargain in bad faith, we will take action,” Walls said in a press release.The union says its position will not change depending on who occupies the governor’s office after the next election.Related: District Blames SF Teachers' Union For Leaving the Bargaining Table Early Tuesday Night ...read more read less