When clerks took to the picket lines for a second day Friday, February 27, it was the first time in history that San Francisco Superior Court clerks struck for more than one day. Prior to the strike, court management had said that they were at impasse: Up to the day before the unfair labor practice strike began, they refused to negotiate over the clerks’ proposals aimed at improving working conditions, including inadequate staffing and training that were causing backlogs, delays, and mistakes; and wages that kept up with inflation. 

Thursday, the first day of the strike, saw the courtrooms kept open overflowing, trials postponed, and public clerk windows shuttered, despite the court’s publicized promise to keep the courts running during the strike. Court management reopened communication with the clerks’ negotiations team Thursday afternoon, making important concessions on cost-of-living adjustments and time off, as well as a more serious commitment to assessing and addressing the staffing and training issues in a thorough, unit-by-unit manner to resolve the backlogs.

“We convened our chapter membership and reached consensus that it was the right thing to do for our families and the public to recommend this agreement for ratification and return to work on Monday morning,” said Hall of Justice courtroom clerk and SEIU 1021 bargaining team member Rob Borders. 

“We made it very clear to court management that the court can’t function without us. We are very thankful to the public who supported us, including the numerous attorneys, other court workers, public officials, and legal experts who stood in solidarity with us and affirmed our importance to the justice system. We feel that we made our voices heard and look forward to getting back to serving the public. Because our work is so critical to so many people’s lives, we have every intention of holding court management accountable to working with us, not against us, to resolve the well-known staffing and training issues that have for too long been wreaking havoc on San Franciscans’ lives.”

The tentative agreement will still need to be ratified by a majority vote of the roughly 220 clerks before it is adopted as a contract. In the meantime, court services resumed as normal Monday morning.

Find more about the strike in the SF Standard here and at NBC Bay Area here.