California’s largest state employee union voted to stage a one-day strike after salary talks with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration stalled, a move that puts taxpayers in the middle of another costly demand.
Members of SEIU Local 1000 cast ballots this week and authorized an unfair practice strike set for Oct. 21, after contract negotiations with the Newsom administration broke down over pay. The union represents roughly 100,000 state workers across every government department, from nurses and IT staff to custodians and analysts.
The Center Square reported that about 96.2% of voting members backed the action. Worksite strike lines are scheduled to form at 7 a.m. in multiple cities, including five locations in Sacramento and one each in Oakland, San Francisco, Fresno, Los Angeles, Norwalk, San Bernardino, and San Diego.
The current contract expired June 30. Union members have been working without a deal for more than three months. The core dispute is money.
SEIU Local 1000 is pushing for a 7% pay increase this year, another 7% in 2027, and 6% in 2028, a cumulative 20% hike over three years. Union president Anica Walls told reporters the big-ticket items are general salary increases.
"Our big-ticket items are general salary increases,"
Walls said the proposals also include affordable healthcare to cover rising costs and work modernization she claimed would “efficiently and effectively continue to save the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.” She accused the Newsom administration of rejecting every union proposal and bargaining in bad faith.
On its website, the union framed the planned walkout in sweeping terms.
"California has never seen a strike this large involving the workers who keep the state running,"
The same statement added that the Newsom administration can still prevent the strike by returning to the table and bargaining in good faith, insisting the demand to “bargain fairly with the workers who keep California running” will not change even if administrations do.
This is not the first expensive round. The California Legislative Analyst’s Office estimated that SEIU Local 1000’s previous three-year labor contract, enacted in 2023, cost taxpayers an additional $1.5 billion. It remains unclear what the total price tag would be if the state accepted the new 20% package.
In June 2025, amid a state budget crisis and delayed raises, the union agreed to temporary pay cuts. Now, with those pressures still in the background, the same workforce is seeking substantial new increases.
Economist Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow in business and economics at the Pacific Research Institute in Pasadena, told The Center Square the numbers do not add up for taxpayers. He said California already compensates its government workers better than other states.
"The state has a spending problem,"
Winegarden went further on the specific ask.
"If you look at the payment of government workers in California compared to every other state, they’re much better compensated. The idea that they’re striking in order to get 7% increase in pay for the next year and 20% over three years, these are unaffordable increases that if the state acquiesces, it’s the taxpayer who pays for it."
He added that agreeing would simply make the state’s fiscal problems worse.
Gov. Newsom’s office did not comment directly and referred questions to the California Department of Human Resources. Angela Musallam, CalHR’s deputy director of communications, said in an email that the agency is still willing to talk.
"CalHR remains ready to sit down anytime with the union to negotiate a fair and responsible agreement,"
Musallam also said the state remains focused on protecting the critical and essential services Californians rely on. Under state law, employers cannot discipline or threaten union members who strike, but workers who walk out will not be paid and cannot use vacation or sick time. The union’s strike fund, built from dues, covers legal services only, not lost wages.
That leaves the practical pressure on two sides: state services that could slow for a day, and public employees forgoing a day’s pay while pressing for long-term raises that Winegarden and other fiscal critics say California cannot sustain.
The pattern is familiar. A large public-sector union leverages a high-turnout authorization vote, claims historic scale, and demands multi-year salary growth after a prior deal already added more than a billion dollars to the taxpayer tab. The administration says it wants a “fair and responsible” deal. The union says every proposal was rejected. Taxpayers get the bill either way if the state folds.
When union leaders call 20% raises over three years the price of keeping California running, someone should ask who keeps writing the checks, and how much longer those checks can clear.
