Local 1000’s Ability to Strike! 

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I understand the impact a union can have in calling for and using strikes that include paying strike benefits to represented employees over the course of a long-term strike.  Local 1000 has the protected right to strike per the Ralph C. Dills Act (Government Code §3517.8) once an impasse is reached in contract negotiations between the Union and the State. [1]

Law firms Slote, Links & Boreman, LLP and Beeson, Tayer & Bodine also stated that public sector unions in California have the right to go on strike. [2-3]

VOTING TO STRIKE IN 2009

In August 2009, our Union membership actually voted in favor of a strike authorization. [4] Our current president, however, decided that a strike would not be effective during the furlough fiasco, a period when most of our state represented employees were subjected to three furlough days per month from July 2009 to July 2010. This was after they had already endured 2 days per month furlough beginning in February 2009.

VOTING TO STRIKE…AGAIN, IN 2016

Local 1000 for a second time took a strike vote in November 2016. As a result, a 1-day strike was called for December 5, 2016, but it was canceled when the State contacted our Union for renewed contract discussions in the afternoon on December 2, 2016. In the early morning hours of December 3, 2016, our leadership reached a tentative agreement with the State. [5-7]

THE RIGHT TO STRIKE

The fact is simple: public sector unions can go on strike in California. However, Local 1000 has taken strike authorizations, then scheduled a strike, but never followed through by actually going on strike for a serious length of time. Union leadership did not show the State the power the Union can have in achieving the fruits of social and economic justice for Local 1000 state represented employees by negotiating significantly higher pay increases.

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As your Union president, I will change that.  

 

1. https://www.perb.ca.gov/laws/statutes.aspx#ST3517_8

2. http://www.slotelaw.com/articles/public-employees-right-strike-clarified-california-supreme-court

3. http://www.beesontayer.com/2015/04/perb-affirms-public-employee-right-to-strike/

4. http://www.mercurynews.com/2009/08/01/californias-largest-state-employee-union-allows-strike/

5. http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article114965863.html

6. http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/12/02/california-state-worker-strike-seiu-local-1000-court-hearing/

7. http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article118694613.html