Search: 06/2023

After three months of negotiations and over 100 separate bargaining unit meetings, the SEIU Local 1000 bargaining team was unable to reach a tentative agreement on a new contract with the State.

As the Teamsters sit down with UPS to negotiate a contract for over 300,000 represented workers, tensions have been high. As deadlines come and UPS holds out on a serious counteroffer to the union’s demands, the Teamsters have held strong at the table. While they prepared for a strike, their leadership returned to the table to continue discussions. A strike is a powerful tool for working people everywhere, and in order to use it most effectively, strategic decisions must be made to ensure that members can maximize their impact on their employer.

The State has made it clear: they do not care about the needs of workers. Their 6% raise counterproposal is an insult to every state worker across California who kept this state growing for the last three years. The State’s refusal to address the economic concerns of one of the country’s largest public workforces will have devastating impacts on the services Californians depend on, the workers who provide those services, and the communities they live in.

State workers held a protest outside the CalHR building in Sacramento to demand a fair contract with a living wage that will respect, protect, and pay us. With some members driving for over an hour to attend, workers from across California are joining together to demand more from the State’s negotiators.

SEIU Local 1000 has been informed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and California Correctional Health Care Services that the California City Correctional Facility, or CAC, is projected to close by March 31, 2024.

After learning that the CAC is slated for closure, and with the short timeline to negotiate this closure and its impact on Local 1000 represented, we are preparing for pre-mitigation through the Voluntary Transfer Process or VTP.

This week, we’re sharing thoughtful reads from a range of sources that help us understand the issues and ideas that shape our Union world.

Across the country, state workers are suffering from the same issues as California state workers. Low pay, attrition, and vacancies are impacting working families as they grapple with rising costs of living. But the impacts don’t end with the workers but with the people who depend on the services they provide. From Maine to California, services that the public relies on are degraded by these policy choices, costing lives.