---
title: "California state workers strike after 3% raises and negotiated pay cuts"
description: "SEIU Local 1000’s first statewide walkout since 1982 follows pay deferrals and a four-day office mandate"
author: "Luis Goa"
published: 2026-10-21T12:00:00Z
modified: 2026-10-21T14:33:41Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/california-state-workers-strike-after-3-raises-and-negotiate-ad68fd
language: en
tags: ["politics", "newsom", "labor", "unions", "budget", "us"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# California state workers strike after 3% raises and negotiated pay cuts

*SEIU Local 1000’s first statewide walkout since 1982 follows pay deferrals and a four-day office mandate*

By Luis Goa · October 21, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/california-state-workers-strike-after-3-raises-and-negotiate-ad68fd

## In brief

- SEIU Local 1000 began its first statewide strike since 1982 on Oct 21
- The union represents about 100,000 workers and accuses Newsom of bad-faith bargaining
- State spending rose 59% while reported worker compensation rose 32% over nearby baselines
- Workers accepted roughly 9% cuts in 2020 and two more years of reductions in 2025
- A four-day office mandate and divided pension benefits added to the dispute

SEIU Local 1000 began a statewide strike on Oct 21, its first since signing its initial collective-bargaining agreement in 1982, 44 years earlier. The union represents about 100,000 California state employees and accuses Gov. Gavin Newsom of refusing to bargain in good faith. [CalMatters reported](https://calmatters.org/economy/2026/10/why-are-state-workers-striking/) that Local 1000 president Anica Walls put the core complaint this way: “They’re just kind of tired of always feeling the budget is balanced on state employees’ backs.”

The strike is also a break inside the Democratic coalition. Local 1000 gave Newsom $500,000 for his 2018 campaign and another $1 million to help defeat the 2021 recall, two checks totaling $1.5 million. Union members now circulate memes comparing him to Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, depicting him as a science-fiction villain and mocking his presidential ambitions.

## The budget and payroll lines did not move together

California state spending rose from $201.4 billion in fiscal 2018-19 to $321 billion in Newsom’s 2025-26 budget: a $119.6 billion increase, reported by CalMatters as 59%. State-worker compensation reached $25.2 billion in 2025, about 32% more than in 2019. The two series measure different things—total state spending against worker compensation, with fiscal and annual baselines that are close but not identical—but the comparison explains why employees do not accept overall spending growth as a proxy for pay growth.

![A cream watering can shaped like the U.S. Capitol drips onto a red envelope held by a dark blue hand against a teal background.](https://rews.cc/img/7d11c19cf26e377311d48378ef3a4d4bdac844c3.webp)

When the state was flush after the pandemic, Newsom approved bonuses for many public employees, particularly prison staff. Ongoing raises were tighter: increases topped out at 3% in most contracts. Bonuses do not compound into the salary base or pension formula in the same way as permanent raises, while a 3% ceiling fixes the annual increase before inflation or local living costs enter the calculation.

The dispute did not begin with Newsom. State employees accepted furloughs and wage reductions from 2008 through 2013, during the Great Recession and its aftermath under Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown. Brown then sought further concessions, including an added paycheck deduction for retiree health care and higher employee pension contributions.

## How the pay cuts were structured

Newsom pressed workers for reductions across three years of his tenure. During the early-pandemic recession scare, unions accepted wage cuts of roughly 9% and received days off that employees could bank for later. In 2025, as Newsom tried to close a severe deficit, most unions—including Local 1000—accepted two years of wage reductions, more days off and a deferral of negotiated raises until the following year.

The exchange was, in compact form: 2020 → roughly 9% wage reduction ↔ days off that could be banked; 2025 → two years of wage reductions plus deferred raises ↔ additional days off. Paid time off can compensate employees, but it does not raise the salary on which overtime, promotions or retirement calculations are based.

![A navy blue wallet holds a large cream clock and yellow cards, with a gold coin beside it against a bright red background.](https://rews.cc/img/2d729827b0567e53aebc565ff0ae5b8b5ff114d4.webp)

The California Association of Professional Scientists rejected that pattern. It had already conducted a three-day strike in 2023, the first against Newsom, and considered the contract it negotiated in 2024 central to preserving its raises. Just before one of those raises was due last summer, the union learned that the state budget contained no money for it. Lawmakers later restored the increase through another spending bill. “We negotiated that collective bargaining agreement in good faith and believe a deal is a deal,” said Justin Garcia, the union’s vice president.

## The office mandate changed the value of the same job

Newsom ordered most state employees to work remotely during the pandemic unless their jobs required them to report to places such as prisons or state hospitals. His administration commended employees for the transition and published a dashboard showing that they were as efficient at home as in the office; the reported efficiency measure itself is not specified. Newsom later argued that remote work limited in-person collaboration, set a two-day in-office requirement in 2024 and raised it to four days beginning last summer.

Employees seeking more flexibility cite a 2025 state audit that estimated $225 million in annual savings from allowing more remote work. The mandate’s cost to an employee is immediate—more commuting days and less schedule flexibility—while the administration’s claimed collaboration benefit has not been given a comparable dollar figure in the dispute.

![A cream house key forms a road leading from a house symbol inside its circular head to a coral office building against a teal background.](https://rews.cc/img/78cdbea12d1a755fddcabb57de8980b96884cc80.webp)

## Retirement is another cohort divide

Workers hired before 2013 have better pension terms than employees hired afterward. Brown championed the law that reduced benefits after the Great Recession drained billions from California’s major pension funds and exposed the cost of an enhancement former Gov. Gray Davis had signed roughly a dozen years earlier. Post-2013 employees work longer and contribute more of their income toward retirement. Newsom vetoed a bill last month that would have improved pension formulas for police officers and firefighters, a proposal expected to return under his successor.

State unions generally receive a better hearing from Democrats than Republicans; Schwarzenegger championed four unsuccessful ballot measures intended to strip public-sector unions of power. Former Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, a union-aligned Democrat, summarized the political problem: “They (unions) have to make converts in the church in which they worship.”

Perata said governors and lawmakers still must pass balanced budgets, but should weigh spending commitments against the cost of paying employees adequately. “It’s past time to show there’s recognition and not just by blowing smoke at them,” he said. The immediate numbers are now the strike’s duration, any negotiated change to the two-year reductions and whether the four-day office rule remains untouched.