**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OCT. 21, 2025**

Contact: Jennie Smith-Camejo, jennie.smith-camejo@seiu1021.org, (510) 710-0201

October 9, clerks at Superior Court of San Francisco voted by an overwhelming 98% to authorize their contract negotiations team to call the second strike in two years—for the very same issues that forced last year’s strike. As they move toward a strike that is likely to happen this month if management does not address their issues around training and staffing, they picketed outside both the Hall of Justice and the civil court at their lunch break on Tuesday, October 21.

Their goal: to make the public aware that mismanagement of the courts is causing unnecessary delays and errors that make trials drag on longer—a burden on victims, defendants, jurors, prosecutors, and public defenders—and that can, in the most extreme cases, result in people being kept in jail longer than they should or released without the proper level of supervision.

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“The situation is even worse than it was at this time last year,” said Rob Borders, a court clerk for the Superior Court for 11 years who has been at the SF Hall of Justice for 2.5 years and who is on the union negotiations team. “We still have no meaningful training. They’re still assigning people to courtrooms they’re not adequately trained in. At the Hall of Justice, we have even fewer staff than we had last year, even as the number of cases goes up, and it’s causing delays and mistakes that really impact people’s lives. I’ve been aware of more instances where someone is not released when the court ordered them released than I have in the ten years I’ve worked at the court.”

Chronic short staffing is driving the need for reference manuals and cross-training. With an increasing number of cases and too few staff, clerks often have to work in courtrooms with different protocols they haven’t been trained in. 

“Just last week, a senior clerk was placed in a department she hadn’t been trained in,” said Ashley Hebert, a clerk at the criminal court and a member of the union contract negotiations team. “She expressed to management that she wasn’t trained for it, and they still put her there. After they had already put her there, now they’re going to start training her in the department. And this is the domestic violence department, so any mistakes with restraining orders could have huge effects. If that process isn’t followed correctly, you’re potentially putting people in harm’s way. This is just one example of how court management is failing the people it’s supposed to serve.”

Court clerks have been in contract negotiations since early September, but so far have not seen management make a serious, good-faith effort to meaningfully address these concerns—despite the fact that they are still causing inexcusable delays and errors that have led to defendants kept in jail too long and others released without the Court’s ordered level of supervision.

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SEIU Local 1021 represents nearly 60,000 employees in local governments, nonprofit agencies, health care programs, courts, and schools throughout Northern California, including seven private colleges and numerous community colleges. SEIU Local 1021 is a diverse, member-driven organization with members who work to make our cities, schools, colleges, counties, and special districts safe and healthy places to live and raise our families.