State government’s largest union is edging closer to a strike.
SEIU Local 1000 President Yvonne Walker has called for a strike vote of the union’s 95,000 members beginning next week, according to a statement on the union website.
The union is trying to get a bigger raise than the 2.96 percent pay hike Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration is offering. Brown’s proposal would raise SEIU salaries by 12 percent over four years, but also require its members to begin paying a contribution toward their retiree health care costs.
“We still believe the state can do better,” Walker wrote in a message to SEIU members.
SEIU represents workers in nine different bargaining units. Its contracts for nurses, administrative employees and information technology workers are among the 14 state labor agreements that expired this summer.
Walker wrote to union members that SEIU has been in negotiations with the state for the past six months. In July, union leadership voted to authorize a strike vote.
The next step toward a strike would be a vote by union members.
A vote to strike would not necessarily lead to workers walking off the job.
Before workers strike, the union likely would have to declare an impasse in negotiations and participate in mediation with the state. That process could take months.
But surveying members on their willingness to strike could strengthen SEIU’s position at the bargaining table.
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