Alameda County Superior Court operations are being disrupted by striking clerks and other employees Wednesday in a labor action that court officials say threatens public safety.
Court hearings, lawsuit processing and legal document management services are all being interrupted to various degrees by the two-day strike, which was called by a 99 percent vote of workers represented by Service Employees International Union Local 1021.
In addition, court officials say many workers from the Alameda County Management Employees Association and the SEIU Local 1021/Alameda County Official Court Reporters Association are calling in sick, asking for days off or refusing to cross picket lines at courthouses throughout the county.
Union officials said the strike is primarily in response to the court’s unfair labor practices in negotiations over “a pervasive understaffing problem,” workers doing jobs for which they aren’t trained and the faltering level of service at the county’s courts.
The union says nearly 1 in 5 court jobs remain unfilled.
In response, however, court officials said Wednesday that the court system is overstaffed by 100 people, training is abundant and that staffing and training haven’t been the primary focus of contract talks.
Also, SEIU Local 1021 is asking for pay hikes and “retention stipends” at levels beyond what the court can afford without “significant” layoffs, court officials said.
“As shown during past contract negotiations and just last month, when the Court has the money, we strive to take care of the people who are critical to our operations,” Presiding Judge Thomas Nixon said in a news release Wednesday. “Over the last year, we have done everything in our power to keep all our employees working by making decisions to cut costs rather than lay off employees.”
“Nobody wants a strike, but unfortunately, in order for us to do our jobs the best we can, we need more support from management and they’re not even considering it.”
Jennifer Duan, legal processing assistant
Court officials said they have been in negotiations with the two SEIU Local 1021 bargaining units since September 2024 and with ACMEA since November 2024 and that all three units have received more than 10 percent salary increases over the past three years.
Also, the court has been able to repay employees’ lost wages from last year’s furlough program and make a 1 percent pay hike offer and a signing bonus offer, according to court officials, despite a $4.4 million budget cut from the state this fiscal year.
“We truly understand our employees’ frustrations and their desire to receive continued raises to help them offset the rising cost of living,” Nixon said. “They absolutely deserve the added peace of mind that increasing their wages will bring and we are doing everything we can to make sure they get some increase in salary.”
Striking clerks and legal processing assistants have been working without a contract since their previous one expired on Dec. 31.
“Nobody wants a strike, but unfortunately, in order for us to do our jobs the best we can, we need more support from management and they’re not even considering it,” said Jennifer Duan, a legal processing assistant at the Wiley Manuel Courthouse in Oakland, where she and several of her union colleagues walked a picket line Wednesday.
“We’re waiting in anticipation for them to bring something to the table,” Duan said.
Duan and fellow legal processing assistant Camellia Sirak dispute the court’s claim that it’s overstaffed and said they often have to pitch in to help other courthouses that don’t have enough staff on hand.
“It’s a mix of both training and pay,” Sirak said. “I think both things are intertwined and also the court likes to use very vague language that they tend to twist to kind of work in their favor and they tend to go by the spirit of things rather than the letter of things and then when you hold them accountable to the letter of things, they just want to act completely confused.”
Court officials said the strike is making it more difficult for domestic violence victims to receive emergency restraining orders and some defendants could be released from jail if their case aren’t heard before state-mandated deadlines.
Union leaders said criminal, civil and juvenile courts are all impacted, which could throw a wrench into all kinds of cases, including felonies, divorces, child custody disputes and traffic violations.
Still, during the strike, people who have jury duty or pending cases should go to court as scheduled.
Also, drop boxes are available at all courthouses for people to submit filings and people can still access the court’s electronic filing system online.
The Alameda County Superior Court system operates 10 courthouses and other administrative facilities in seven cities and runs on a roughly $120 million annual budget that supports about 650 employees.
The post 2-day strike of court employees disrupting Alameda County Superior Court operations appeared first on Local News Matters.