City of Oakland
City of Oakland
SEIU 1021 staff and member leaders are working hard to safeguard your health at work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Click here to find employer-specific information, details, and documents to learn more about what’s happening in your worksite during this outbreak.
Download the City of Oakland Memorandum of Understanding (2025-2026)
Know Your Rights: Weingarten Rules
Chapter meetings are always the last Wednesday of the month.
When We Fight, We Win!
When We Stand with the Community, They Stand with Us
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Oakland administration has tried to attack our union. Before coming to the bargaining table, they cut the hours of our ‘temporary, part-time’ members and threatened mass layoffs of permanent workers. Only through a long campaign were we able to beat back the Mayor’s attack and force her to take her further concessions off the table.
Mayor Schaaf Has Withdrawn Her Proposed Cuts and Concessions!
No Layoffs. No Furloughs. No Postponed COLAs or Step Increases.
At a meeting including other unions in the city, including Local 21, IBEW Local 1245, IAFF Local 55, and CMEA, the Mayor confirmed today that the proposed further cuts to and concessions from our members have been withdrawn.
This means:
The Mayor Wants to Balance Her Budget On Our Backs, with TPT Layoffs, Up to 26 Days of Furloughs, Delayed COLAs, Postponed Step Increases, and More — We Say “No Way!”
As most of our members know, Mayor Libby Schaaf and her administration pre-emptively laid off our temporary, part-time workforce, and then came to us and proposed that we accept even MORE cuts.
We have not agreed to any such cuts. With one voice, we have told the Mayor and her staff, again and again, that we do not agree with their position that any cuts are necessary.
Tell Council: WE REJECT THE MAYOR’S CUTS
June 1, 2020
Dear City of Oakland Co-Worker:
The Mayor and her administration are predicting tough times ahead and major budget problems, and have called on City workers to accept deep cuts. Specifically, the Mayor has asked 1021 members to:
Show up to tell the city we reject their cuts: Lake Merritt Car Caravan Tuesday, May 26, at 5:30 p.m.
May 22, 2020
Dear co-worker:
I hope you are staying safe in this difficult time. The Mayor has
followed up her plan to lay off some 800 of our temporary,
part-time co-workers, many of whom have worked alongside us for
years, by asking us to sit down with her and her team to discuss
the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stand together to tell the Mayor: “You trim a tree from the TOP”
May 15, 2020
We Have to Stand Together to Tell the Mayor:
Put People Before Profits!
Dear City of Oakland Co-Worker:
Just this morning, Mayor Libby Schaaf said on KTVU Channel 2 that
she stood for “people before profits.” This is just not true, as
our temporary, part-time co-workers who were just issued layoff
notices can prove.
An Update and a Call to Action
May 8, 2020
Dear City of Oakland co-worker:
This week has mostly been more of the same from the City of
Oakland. They have implemented plans that hurt workers without
planning or meeting with the workers in advance, they have
engaged in dishonest budgeting that seems more interested in
hiding money than using it, and they abruptly cancelled a City
Council meeting where important votes were scheduled to deal with
the pandemic and appoint the new City Administrator.
This update covers three items:
A MESSAGE FROM CITY OF OAKLAND CHAPTER PRESIDENT FELIPE CUEVAS
May 1, 2020
Good afternoon, SEIU 1021 City of Oakland members,
I want to provide an update on various items about the City’s
response to the COVID-19 pandemic and Union’s involvement.
So far, the city has been doing close to the minimum and the
union has advocated for more family-friendly and worker-friendly
policies as well as addressing PPE and safety concerns. We have
won quite a lot from the City so far, but there are more battles
ahead.
Join Our Car Caravan
Around Lake Merritt, Tuesday, May 26, 2020, @ 5:30 p.m.
Show Up for City Services
NO CUTS DURING COVID
Starting at 5, come to the parking lot next to the Lucky Supermarket (207 E 18th St, Oakland) and we will put a poster on your car for visibility! (Or put a purple t-shirt on your back right window.) Then we will circle the lake clockwise (lake on your right) to show that we’re united in opposition to the current layoffs of our temporary, part-time co-workers and the Mayor’s threatened further cuts.
We will be observing all social distancing protocols for this action.
If You’re a TPT Who Gets a Release or Layoff Notice, Contact Your Steward, Field Rep, or Chapter Officer IMMEDIATELY
We're Fighting Back Against the City
As some of you know, the City has been sending “release” notices to some of our temporary part-time (TPT) co-workers. These notices are illegal:
Covid-19 Update: Fighting to Keep Our City Safe and Healthy
SEIU 1021 City of Oakland Chapter Update
Your union is meeting regularly with City administration to keep
our members and our community safe and healthy. Today, we met
with the City to determine which workers will be identified as
essential vs. non-essential, and we will be meeting with them
again tomorrow.
SEIU 1021 City of Oakland Chapter Elections Paused
Due to the shutdown over the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Oakland Chapter elections will be suspended until further notice.
Once the City opens for regularly scheduled business, we will proceed with the chapter elections as planned, with a new timeline.
All nominations that were received will still be valid when we reconvene.
Thank you for understanding during this time where safety is our number-one goal.
—The Elections Committee
Rocky Brown — Headstart
Adelina Hernandez — Oakland Public Library
Courtney Holmes — Public Works
City of Oakland Chapter Elections
Per SEIU 1021 bylaws, the election for Chapter Officers will take place on March 26, 27 and 30, 2020. You must be a member to vote or to nominate a candidate. To nominate yourself or someone else, complete the nomination form and mail it or deliver it in person to:
SEIU 1021
Attn: City of Oakland Chapter Elections
100 Oak Street
Oakland, CA 94607
We Have Reached a Tentative Agreement With the City of Oakland
Voting Will Take Place October 29 - 31: Vote Count November 1, 100 Oak St., 10 a.m.
This is a two-year contract: July 1, 2019 – June 30,
2021.
New highlights include:
INFO PICKET Wed., Sep. 25, Noon
14th & Broadway -- Purple Up and Join SEIU 1021 and IFPTE Local 21 As We Speak Out for a Fair Contract
City workers love Oakland. But many city workers are doing the jobs of two or three people because the City Administration refuses to solve the understaffing crisis. There are more than 600 unfilled vacancies across the city, and it’s stretching us thin and depriving Oakland’s residents of the services they deserve.
We’re dedicated, but enough is enough. Join us as we rally to improve public services and build an Oakland for everyone.
RSVP to the MRC 1-877-687-1021 and we will see you there!
(Lunch will be provided.)
Your Contract Action Team Needs YOU!
Come to the next meeting Thursday, Sep 12, 100 Oak St., 5 p.m.
Contract Action Team Meeting
Thursday, September 12
100 Oak St., Oakland
2nd Floor Open Area
5 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
We are meeting to plan our next set of actions and work on
outreach. ALL City of Oakland 1021 members are welcome!
Come out and help us build on our last successful action, a unity break downtown.
Rally to Celebrate All City Workers Do for Oakland at Art & Soul
Saturday, July 27, 2019: 1 PM – 1:30 PM
City of Oakland Workers Are the Heart and Soul of Our City
RSVP to Julio Corral at Julio.Corral@seiu1021.org—first 100 RSVPs will receive a free ticket to Art & Soul after our rally!
Current Tentative Agreements
To Learn More and to Get Involved, Come to the General Membership Meeting: Wed., July 31, 5 p.m., 100 Oak St.
After months of bargaining, the City has still never increased their economic offer that would make City workers poorer and put them further behind the region’s increasing cost of living, and they continue to try to roll back the internal hiring processes established in section 14.7 of our contract. Your elected Bargaining Team is continuing to meet with the City and a mediator, and have bargaining sessions scheduled in July and August.
Tell the City to Come Back to the Table
COME TO CITY COUNCIL’S CLOSED SESSION: TUESDAY, JULY 16 1:30 P.M., at CITY HALL
Two weeks ago, the City’s representatives walked away from the bargaining table, claiming negotiations were at an impasse. This claim was a lie: we were hard at work, passing proposals and counterproposals, so we immediately filed an unfair labor practice charge against them.
On Monday, City Council passed a budget. The budget didn’t address our issues adequately, and on Tuesday, our members stormed City Hall with Local 21 and delivered a message to City Administrator Sabrina Landreth: get your representatives back to the table, and tell them to bargain in good faith.