California government workers to vote on potential strike

A union that represents 96,000 public employees in California announced this week that it is considering a strike.

According to an announcement published on the website of SEIU Local 1000, state government workers who are union members have until Oct. 7 to vote on moving forward with a strike.

Representatives of SEIU Local 1000 did not reply before publication time on Tuesday. SEIU stands for Service Employees International Union.

In its announcement this week, the union said the state failed to bargain fairly over priorities that state workers wanted to highlight during contract negotiations this year. Members can vote online to strike or not. Voting begins on Wednesday.

The Governor’s Office did not respond before publication time on Tuesday afternoon. The California Department of Human Resources was unreachable on Tuesday.

According to SEIU Local 1000’s website, the union cannot strike unless specific circumstances occur, like when the state refuses to bargain in good faith. Dates that the strike will be in effect will likely not be decided until after voting closes in October. Workers don’t receive pay or any unemployment or paid time off during the strike, the union said on its website. There is a strike fund, but the union said there isn’t enough money to match workers’ wages.

Other groups that could comment on the potential strike, like the University of California, Berkeley Labor Center and the University of California, Los Angeles Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, did not comment on the potential strike before publication time.