In the middle of February, about 100 members of California’s largest public employee union marched to a Department of Human Resources office. They were asking the state to award a conditional raise.

One month later, roughly ten times as many state workers represented by SEIU Local 1000 and other unions showed up to protest outside the same CalHR building. They were loud, angry and demanding the state take action on a different issue: Rescinding Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new telework policy.

That order, which called public employees back into the office four days a week, has provided what the union says is an organizing accelerant at a critical time.

Last week, it hosted another rally where state legislators and the governor have offices. Hundreds of people filled much of a city block, danced to blaring music and roared as elected officials and union leaders told them to keep fighting.

“We are the union!” workers chanted. “The mighty, mighty union!”

SEIU Local 1000’s leaders in recent years have struggled to stem a decline in the percentage of members who pay dues. The group represents roughly 95,000 state workers, which includes accountants, nurses and custodians. Fewer dues-paying members in their ranks means less sway at the bargaining table and with state leaders.

The new enthusiasm could help stop that trend.

But these issues galvanizing members also present the union with a political test: Will its public campaign actually lead to a pay increase and make Newsom’s return-to-office order go away? Or will losses on those issues create even more dissatisfaction with the group ahead of a contract fight next year?

There are signs that SEIU Local 1000’s efforts have renewed the spirits of members who in recent years have weathered a tumultuous leadership change and a contract negotiation that left many unsatisfied. It is too early to tell if it will translate into future wins.

During the recent rally, the union’s president Anica Walls took an optimistic stand.

“We get out here, we stand strong, it works,” she shouted. “Let’s go!”

Telework and raises

Both fights face difficult odds.

Newsom has shown no indication that he will change his mind on the mandate.

Unions have filed challenges with a state employment board, but those will likely not be resolved before the order goes into effect in July. On Friday, SEIU Local 1000 said it asked the board to speed up its review of the governor’s executive order, but a similar request from a union representing state engineers was recently denied.

SEIU Local 1000 has pointed to agencies that have gone against Newsom’s order as signs that its pushback is working. The Department of Insurance and California Public Employees’ Retirement System have declined to bring workers back four days a week. But both have varying degrees of independence from the governor.

So far, it doesn’t appear that any state agencies that are directly under Newsom’s watch have gone against his demand.

“Some are reconsidering rigid office mandates, and we believe the growing pressure from employees is playing a role in that,” Walls said in an emailed statement. “By focusing on facts, like how telework improves productivity and saves money, we’ve been able to shift the conversation toward solutions.”

Wednesday’s demonstration spanned both issues the union is juggling: telework and a raise. While the salary increase would apply to nearly all of the employees represented by the group, only about one-third of its employees are eligible to telework.

The union’s contract allows for a possible 1% salary increase on top of another bump that workers are guaranteed to receive later this year. But the extra 1% depends on whether or not Department of Finance Director Joe Stephenshaw believes there is enough money in the state budget to grant it.

California leaders were already navigating the enormous financial challenges imposed by the Los Angeles-area wildfires and uncertainty about federal funding cuts. Then President Donald Trump rattled financial markets with tariffs. The state’s tax revenue can vary dramatically based on movements in the stock market.

The finance department estimated that the 1% salary increase would cost the state $120 million. Stephenshaw is expected to make the decision by May, when the governor releases a revised budget proposal.

When asked if the raise would be approved, spokesperson H.D. Palmer previously said the department wouldn’t speculate as to what might happen.

‘A union’s strength is its membership’

Public employees at last week’s rally said the energy at the recent protests is a positive change.

In 2023, the group’s president was ousted after a controversial tenure. The union’s current contract, approved later that year, left many workers grumbling.

But Eddy Seward, a Franchise Tax Board worker, likes how union leaders are responding now.

“It’s been a much more involved process and it makes me optimistic,” Seward said.

“The union is doing great work,” said Sydney Harper, an Employment Development Department worker.

Gina Garcia-Smith, a senior steward with the union and a consultant with the Department of Education, has noticed more young people getting involved since Newsom’s order in March.

Walls, the union president, said in the statement that more members are participating in virtual events and rallies since the governor’s mandate.

“We’re seeing more unity, more members stepping up, and a renewed sense of what state workers deserve,” Walls said.

Still, the union is contending with a decrease in the share of workers who are willing to pay dues. Contributing to that are efforts by an outside group called the Freedom Foundation, which contacts union members across the country through mail and email letting them know that they don’t have to pay fees to the groups representing them if they don’t want to.

The organization calls itself a “battle tank that’s battering the entrenched power of left-wing government union bosses.”

Maxford Nelsen, the group’s director of research and government affairs, said: “We try to reach out to folks in all the same ways that the unions would.”

The only definitive way to measure if there has been an actual increase in enthusiasm, he said, is if more people are giving their dues to the union. It is too early to tell. The State Controller’s Office on Friday provided the latest tally of SEIU Local 1000 represented employees who pay dues each month, but those numbers are from before Newsom issued his order.

Half of state employees represented by SEIU Local 1000, across nine bargaining units, pay dues, according to the Controller’s Office.

“Whether there is actual energy or not, union executives have every incentive to make it appear as if there is,” Nelsen said.

The workers who attended the rally were largely supportive of the union’s efforts. But critics are more vocal on online forums, such as threatening to leave the union in the event the labor group doesn’t secure wins on telework.