**MEDIA ADVISORY FOR WEDNESDAY, OCT. 29**

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

San Francisco Superior Court clerks have notified court management that they will begin an unfair labor practice strike this Wednesday, October 29, if management’s bargaining team does not address their concerns around chronic short staffing and inadequate training in negotiations Monday and Tuesday. It would be the second strike in a year under CEO Brandon Riley’s tenure.

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. The court clerks’ union has file unfair labor practice charges with the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) related to these issues and management’s failure to address them through collective bargaining.

What: San Francisco Superior Court strike
When: Wednesday, October 29, all day (media availability starting at 850 Bryant St. at 7 a.m.; rally at noon)
Where: Hall of Justice – 850 Bryant St.
Who: Court clerks and supporters
Visuals: Clerks marching, chanting with picket signs

“Management still has the opportunity to avoid a strike by working with us to address the staffing and training issues that are delaying justice and causing unacceptable errors,” said Rob Borders, a courtroom 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. “But these issues are too important to neglect. 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. 

“This month, a senior clerk was placed in a department she hadn’t been trained in,” said Ashley Hebert, a courtroom 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.”

Courtroom 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.