SEIU Local 1000’s strike vote is nearly complete. Where contract talks stand

California’s largest state worker union is voting on if to authorize a strike after months of stalled contract talks with the Newsom administration. The dispute has produced labor board complaints, picket lines and warnings of what could become the largest state worker walkout in California history.

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Here’s what to know:

• When bargaining for a new contract began this April, SEIU Local 1000 made opening demands, including full-time telework for eligible workers, a $25 daily commuter stipend and a $500 monthly “high-crime worksite” stipend for employees required to report in person.
• On June 30, 2026 — the day the existing contract expired — the two sides failed to reach a new agreement, with SEIU Local 1000 chief negotiator Bobby Roy saying the California Department of Human Resources had rejected proposals on pay, health benefits and telework and “provided a dead end” at the bargaining table.
• About 150 demonstrators gathered outside the California Department of Human Resources headquarters in downtown Sacramento on July 22, 2026, protesting over telework and wages as labor negotiations continued without a deal.
• Two days later, SEIU Local 1000 filed an unfair practice charge with the Public Employment Relations Board, saying the state rejected nine of 16 budget-related proposals on June 30 and used a 2025 side letter as rationale to deny new wage and benefit proposals.
• On Labor Day, Sept. 7, 2026, union President Anica Walls announced a strike authorization vote, warning that thousands of state workers could walk off the job if members approve and the Newsom administration “refuses to bargain fairly.” Voting runs four weeks.
• Despite the looming strike threat, bargaining remained paused on Sept. 10, with SEIU Local 1000 still in an extended caucus since Aug. 1. Roy said the state continued to offer zero raises against the union’s request for a 20% increase across three years.
• As voting continued in late September, the union began talks with the state over which positions would be deemed essential and barred from striking, with members picketing outside the California Health Care Facility near Stockton on Sept. 24.
• Why it matters beyond state workers: SEIU Local 1000 represents about 100,000 employees including nurses at state prisons, janitorial staff at state hospitals and analysts in office buildings, meaning a walkout could disrupt services Californians rely on — though in a 2016 near-strike, about 6,000 members were deemed too essential to public health and safety to participate.
• Walls said this time who is deemed essential could look a little differently and conversations are already underway with the state about who reaches that benchmark.
• PERB declared an impasse in neogitations Friday and a third-party mediator will be brought in.