Oakland’s tentative three-year agreements with SEIU Local 1021 and IFPTE Local 21 would raise wages 9 percent without new employee pension or health contributions, ending a strike threat but adding costs to a budget the city projects will run deep deficits through 2030.
Oakland was days away from its first city worker strike in nearly a decade. Then, over two days last week, it settled with both of the unions that had threatened to walk out.
The city announced a tentative three-year agreement with SEIU Local 1021 on Oct. 30 and a matching deal with IFPTE Local 21, which represents many of the city’s professional and technical staff, on Oct. 31. According to the city, Local 21 rescinded the strike notice it had issued for Thursday, Nov. 5. Together the two unions represent about 3,100 city employees, The Oakland Report has calculated.
Neither deal is final. Members of both unions vote on ratification this week, and the City Council must then approve the contracts.
What the deals provide
Both agreements raise wages 9 percent over three years: 2.5 percent in January 2027, another 2.5 percent in January 2028 and 4 percent in January 2029. The city says the raises fall within the bargaining authority the City Council gave its negotiators. Neither deal requires employees to begin paying toward their pensions or health care, something the city had sought earlier in talks.
The SEIU agreement, which the union says was signed Oct. 29 and runs through June 30, 2029, also includes provisions on safety and working conditions, a uniform allowance and a citywide total compensation study, the city said. The union’s summary lists a higher safety-shoe voucher, $250 instead of $200; a higher cap on banked compensatory time, 88 hours instead of 72; protections for workers facing layoff or redeployment; and the conversion of some temporary part-time positions to permanent ones in July 2027. In capital letters, the summary highlights “NO new employee contributions.”
The Local 21 deal adds transit benefits, equity pay adjustments for lower-paid job classifications and protections around the city’s use of artificial intelligence, according to the city.
How the two sides got here
The contracts for both unions expired June 30. Talks had been going since spring, and by late September the gap was wide. The Oakland Report wrote that the city’s offer then, as described by SEIU, was 7 percent over three years, which the union called “bogus.” SEIU credits its members’ 95 percent vote authorizing a strike with moving the city.
Union leaders framed the dispute around staffing. Oakland’s city workforce has carried a vacancy rate of about 20 percent, according to The Oakland Report. “Our city services have been understaffed for years, and residents have felt the impacts of that,” Julian Ware, a vice president of IFPTE Local 21’s Oakland chapter, told The Oaklandside. “Whether it’s potholes or pools, we need to do more. This agreement will help address the root causes of this, especially the cost of living and working in Oakland. The City’s budget can and should reflect a commitment to better staffing in all our departments.”
SEIU 1021 and IFPTE Local 21 did not respond to requests for comment sent Monday. The UC Berkeley Labor Center, asked for an outside assessment of the agreements, declined to make anyone available.
The budget the deals land in
The settlements arrive in a city that has spent two years closing budget gaps. Oakland’s five-year forecast projects general-purpose fund deficits of roughly $115 million to $130 million a year through fiscal 2029-30, The Oakland Report noted. In June, voters rejected Measure E, a parcel tax that would have raised about $34 million a year. The council’s midcycle budget, adopted on a 6-2 vote, avoided layoffs and trimmed the police budget from about $410 million to about $375 million. Moody’s rates the city Aa2 with a negative outlook; S&P Global rates it AA-minus.
The city’s announcements of the SEIU and Local 21 agreements do not include an estimate of what they will cost over three years.
How the deals compare
Oakland’s other recent labor contracts give a sense of the range. The police union’s contract, approved by the council in August, provides raises of 14 percent over five years while requiring officers to pay a larger share of their health and pension costs, according to The Oaklandside; a city staff report put its net five-year cost at $72.1 million, The Oakland Report wrote. Firefighters in IAFF Local 55 reached a tentative deal for 16 percent over five years with what The Oaklandside described as a “modest” pension pickup. The union’s president, Seth Olyer, told the outlet that the deal “doesn’t come close” to what neighboring departments pay.
The police contract also includes a “me too” clause tied to other bargaining units’ terms. The Oaklandside reported that the city did not answer whether the new civilian deals would trigger it.
The last time Oakland’s civilian workers struck, in December 2017, the walkout lasted about a week, and then-Mayor Libby Schaaf called it unlawful, The Oakland Report recalled.
What’s next
SEIU 1021 is holding question-and-answer sessions for members on Nov. 2 and Nov. 5 ahead of its vote. The city says it has now settled five of its seven bargaining tables and expects to reach agreements with IBEW Local 1245 and the City of Oakland Management Employees Association, known as CMEA, this week. After ratification, the contracts go to the City Council for approval.
Desmond Akers covers the cities and counties of the greater Bay Area, from Oakland and San Jose to the Peninsula, the North Bay and the East Bay suburbs, for Around the Region. More from Desmond Akers
