Master Table Updates

June 18, 2026

Contract negotiations are heating up. Let’s keep the pressure on the State to deliver. We are fighting for Fair Pay, Affordable Healthcare, Secure Retirement and Telework that Works. At the center of that fight is our proposal for a 20% General Salary Increase over three years — 7% in 2026, 7% in 2027 and 6% in 2028 — because state workers deserve a contract that recognizes the essential services we provide every day. 

The State continues to talk about budget constraints, but California’s revenue picture has improved significantly. Still, the State has not responded to our wage proposal. But we’re not backing down.

That’s why growing our union remains so important. Every new member helps build the power we need to turn proposals into results.

While we continue demanding answers on pay, bargaining is moving forward on a wide range of issues that impact nearly 100,000 state workers. Keep reading or watch the video below for the latest updates.

📹 Hear Updates Directly from Our Chief Negotiator

Fighting For Telework

As departments move forward with the Governor’s Return-to-Office mandate, SEIU Local 1000 is demanding meet-and-confers across departments to ensure workers have a voice in how these policies are implemented and to hold departments accountable for their decisions. Through these meetings, we have secured important information on exemptions, telework flexibility, parking, office space, field work, reasonable accommodations and other workplace impacts. We have also pressed departments on whether they identified problems with telework before the mandate and what evidence they have that forcing employees back into the office will improve operations.

In many cases, we are finding that departments were not planning major telework changes before the Governor’s order and are not measuring the impact of RTO on productivity, staffing, recruitment, retention, morale or collaboration. These findings only strengthen our position that telework decisions should be based on operational need, taxpayer value and effective public service — not arbitrary mandates.

Meet-and-confers are just one part of our broader fight for Telework that Works. While we continue pushing departments for answers, accountability and practical solutions, our union is also fighting for telework protections at the bargaining table, organizing member actions across the state and challenging policies that undermine effective public service. Visit our RTO webpage to stay up to date on the latest developments. 

Protecting Workers’ Rights

This week, we challenged attempts to create new procedural hurdles that could make it harder for workers to enforce the contract. The State proposed adding a new deadline that could result in grievances being automatically withdrawn if arbitration is not scheduled fast enough. Our bargaining team pushed back because workers deserve a fair process, not more ways for the State to avoid accountability when contract violations occur.

We also continued advancing proposals to strengthen reasonable accommodation protections and improve leave rights for workers facing domestic violence. Discussions continued on workplace violence protections and our proposal to create a wellness program that recognizes the unique stressors state workers face on the job.Negotiations also continued on increasing bilingual pay and ensuring workers are fairly compensated for the language skills they use to serve California’s diverse communities.

In state-run healthcare facilities, our bargaining team continued fighting to reduce and ultimately eliminate Mandatory Overtime. Instead of agreeing to meaningful reductions, the State proposed removing existing contract language that requires labor and management to work together to address the problem. We pushed back because Mandatory Overtime is not a staffing solution. State healthcare workers and the patients they serve deserve real solutions to vacancies, unsafe staffing levels, burnout and the over-reliance on forced overtime.

Every proposal we advance and every proposal we push back against comes back to the same fight: Fair Pay, Affordable Healthcare, Secure Retirement, Telework that Works, and a contract state workers deserve.

Read Past Updates Below: