Nearly 25% of Oakland SEIU members have quit the union and stopped paying dues
Disillusioned with Service Employees International Union Local 1021’s focus on political activities, former Oakland union members are seeking to decertify SEIU and form a new union in its place.
BY SENECA SCOTT
EDITOR’S NOTE: Oakland Report is taking a closer look at public employee unions’ influence on Oakland politics and elected officials’ decision-making. We invited former East Bay Director for Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Seneca Scott to share his perspective on an emerging effort by a group of City of Oakland employees to decertify SEIU and form a new public employee union to take its place.
Nearly one out of every four members have stopped paying dues to SEIU Local 1021
Few politicians can get elected in Oakland without union support. In Oakland today, SEIU Local 1021 dominates local politics, representing over 2,000 City of Oakland workers and more than 60,000 members across Northern California. SEIU is arguably the single largest power broker inside city hall, and they are not shy about flexing their power to gain maximum benefit for themselves.1 Ditto in San Francisco, Los Angeles and most major cities in California.
But their power is not absolute. A substantial number of Oakland SEIU’s rank-and-file members are in open revolt and have been organizing a decertification election for over a year. Since 2021, nearly one out of every four members have left the union and stopped paying dues.
Help us reach our goal of 10,000 subscribers
SEIU 1021 is the only bargaining unit in the city experiencing such a large number of withdrawals. Of the 2,031 listed City of Oakland SEIU members, 503 are no longer paying dues.
By comparison, every other city bargaining unit shows near-universal participation: In IFPTE Local 21, only seven of 945 eligible employees do not pay dues; in IAFF Local 55, only two of 440 do not pay dues; and in OPOA, only 11 of 695 do not pay dues. IBEW 1245 and OPMA have 100% participation.2
Some SEIU members who have withdrawn cite disillusionment with SEIU’s focus on political activities and lobbying, which SEIU spends millions of dollars on each year — money that could be spent on workers or lowering their dues.3 Now, former City of Oakland union members are seeking to decertify SEIU and form a new union in its place.
What is union decertification?
Decertification is the formal process by which workers remove an existing union as their exclusive bargaining representative and choose a different structure — either a new union or an independent association. It is a legal accountability mechanism workers can use when they have lost confidence in their current union and want to seek other representation.4
The Public Employees Relations Board (PERB) is the regulatory agency that oversees labor relations between public sector employers and employees. PERB decertification allows public sector employees to remove a union as their exclusive bargaining representative through a petition process followed by an election.5
Generally, a decertification petition may be filed any time there is no collective bargaining agreement in effect, except within one year after an employee organization has been recognized or after the results of a representation election have been certified. If a valid contract is in effect, no decertification petition may be filed during the term of that contract, except during a certain period, referred to as the “window period,” before the expiration of the contract.
For Oakland workers, that “window period” is between March 2 through March 31. During that window, SEIU 1021 members employed by the City of Oakland may legally petition to decertify the union. During this period, workers can sign cards calling for SEIU 1021 to be removed and replaced by new representation.
The rules under PERB:
30 percent of the bargaining unit must sign a petition to trigger decertification.
If successful, a simple majority election by bargaining unit members will be scheduled by PERB within approximately 30 days to determine to have either no union, keep SEIU, or elect new representation.
If a decertification vote is successful, new representation would replace SEIU 1021 as the exclusive bargaining representative for city workers.
This wouldn’t be the first time a decertification has happened. For example, City of Fremont workers did the same thing in 2014 when they voted to leave SEIU 1021 and form the City of Fremont Employee Association.6
Oakland Workers United seeks to be the alternative to SEIU
“SEIU 1021 crossed the line when they moved over into politics & forgot about representing their members who pay the dues.”
– Al Marshall, Oakland Workers United founder and former SEIU 1021 Chapter President
Oakland Workers United is led by a group of former SEIU 1021 leaders, chapter presidents, vice presidents, and stewards — longtime Oakland city workers with decades of experience in labor contract negotiations and grievances.7
Today, they are sharply critical of SEIU, citing poor representation and frustration that the union has lost touch with its membership by spending large sums of money on political causes that many members opposed — for example, SEIU’s $50,000 contribution to help former mayor Sheng Thao fight her recall after the FBI raided her home.8
In case you missed it, Thao went on to be recalled by a supermajority of Oakland voters,9 then was indicted by the federal government, and is now facing up to 95 years in federal prison on corruption charges.10
OWU’s organizing effort began roughly a year ago, with leaders holding a rally and press conference on March 4, 2025.11 The press conference was attended by multiple Bay Area reporters, but no story was written about it — until now.
Full disclosure
In full disclosure, the founding members leading OWU are former colleagues of mine when I led SEIU 1021 in the East Bay. I am supporting their organizing efforts and providing advice, along with media and public relations support.
When I worked for SEIU 1021 as lead organizer for the East Bay region, we didn’t always see eye to eye. To be honest, back then I sometimes thought they were a pain in the ass — constantly demanding more transparency and stronger workplace representation from the local (imagine that!)
Union work on the city’s dime
It was former SEIU chapter president and now OWU leader Al Marshall who first negotiated for full “release time.” Common practice in larger public-sector unions, release time is when union stewards are released from their regular job duties and allowed to spend some or all of their paid time handling union matters.
You read that correctly — taxpayers currently pay for some employees to spend some, or all of their city-paid time on union representation work, instead of the jobs they were hired by the city to do.12
The history of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1021
For decades, Oakland city workers were represented by SEIU Local 790, a powerful, Oakland-centered local with deep roots and a focus on strong internal accountability.
That changed in 2007–08, when SEIU International dissolved Local 790 and merged ten locals into what became SEIU Local 1021 (“Ten Locals for the 21st Century”), a mega-local spanning dozens of jurisdictions across Northern California.13 Local 790 resisted the merger at first, but ultimately was the last to join SEIU 1021.14
The promise SEIU made to the rank-and-file workers was efficiency and power. Former Local 790 members were told that the new organization would lead to lower dues and no loss of local control. But for many of the former Local 790 members, Oakland workers went from running their own local to being just one constituency among many — outvoted, outnumbered, and often ignored.
For some former Local 790 members, the resentment never went away. The present decertification effort is in many ways the long echo of that moment.
Labor unions 101 — from representation, to organizing, to a social justice model
As the American economy changed over the years, so did unions.
For much of the 20th century, unions operated under a simple representational model. Members paid dues and their unions represented them. Success was measured in contracts negotiated, grievances won, wages raised, and job protections enforced. Political activities certainly took place, but it was largely secondary.
By the late 1980s and early 1990s, as private-sector union membership collapsed, many unions pivoted to an organizing model to increase membership. Growth replaced representation as the primary metric of success. Paid professional organizers displaced shop stewards (for many years, I was one of them). Internal democracy weakened as unions, especially public sector unions, increasingly evolved into permanent campaign organizations with a clear mandate handed down by union bosses: grow or die.15
By the mid-2000’s, large segments of labor transitioned again — this time into what I call the social justice model. Under this framework, unions became political actors advancing broad ideological agendas, sharing resources and tactics with an ever-increasing bevy of nonprofit and political advocacy organizations.16 Think Occupy Wall Street, the LGBTQIA+ movement and Black Lives Matter — all of which received millions in union contributions. Union coffers increasingly flowed toward electoral politics, issue campaigns, and nonprofit coalitions, while bread-and-butter workplace representation spending often receded.
Each shift moved unions farther from the shop floor and closer to the pursuit of political power — often seemingly for its own sake — and widened the gap between leadership and rank-and-file workers.17
That gap is where decertification efforts like the one now unfolding inside SEIU 1021 took hold.
How unions came to dominate Oakland politics
To understand why the SEIU 1021 member revolt matters, a history lesson will help gain insight. It’s important to understand how “The Unions” came to dominate local politics, and why, despite that apparent success, a substantial portion of SEIU 1021’s own members are now trying to leave and form their own union.
Prior to 2018, unions often struggled to consistently elect their preferred candidates in Oakland. Organized labor was influential, yes — but not as dominant as it is today.
Statewide, unions demonstrated their organizing and political muscle in a watershed moment in 2012, when they successfully defeated Proposition 32, a ballot measure that would have restricted the use of payroll deductions for political contributions.18
Another major inflection point in Oakland came slightly earlier, in 2010, when union-backed former SEIU employee Jean Quan19 was elected mayor in Oakland’s first mayoral election conducted under ranked-choice voting. Then in 2012, union-backed progressive Barbara Parker was elected city attorney,20 after having been appointed by city council in July 2011 to fill the vacancy created by former city attorney John Russo’s resignation.
What followed, however, was a setback for union and progressive ambitions: the eight-year tenure of moderate Democrat Libby Schaaf, who defeated union-backed candidate Dan Siegel21 and served as Oakland mayor from 2014 to 2022.
The political tides turned again in 2018, when union-backed progressives swept key races with the elections of Nikki Bas and Sheng Thao to city council, joining Rebecca Kaplan and Dan Kalb to form a dependable four-vote union/progressive bloc. Under Oakland’s hybrid form of government, that bloc effectively rendered Mayor Schaaf a lame-duck executive, unable to control her budget due to Oakland’s city charter which gives the city council the power to amend the mayor’s budget, but no substantive power for the mayor to exercise a veto.
In 2020, the election of Carroll Fife cemented the union/progressive control of the city council — and, with it, control over the city’s policy agenda and purse strings.22
Fife’s election, in particular, marked a new high-water mark of union/progressive spending on city council elections. Well over a half-million dollars was spent to help Fife get elected to her District 3 seat. SEIU Local 1021 contributed $235,000 to the effort.23
The union-backed political takeover of Oakland City Hall was completed in 2022 when Sheng Thao was elected mayor by a razor-thin margin, giving the unions/progressives total control of council decision-making for the first time in Oakland’s political history.24
Remote work persists in the City of Oakland, deepening the internal divide
There is also a growing divide between city public works employees who must report to work in person, and other city employees who continue to work remotely, six years after the COVID-19 pandemic began. Some in-person workers argue this creates inequity, especially as remote employees have additional flexibility and some are said to engage in outside work.
SEIU has resisted efforts to mandate broader return-to-office policies, and Mayor Barbara Lee has echoed similar talking points when pressed on the issue.25
SEIU’s membership has gone down while its political spending has gone up
Marshall and Glasper, the Oakland Workers United leaders seeking to decertify SEIU, argue that workplace representation has weakened while political activities and lobbying have intensified. As proof, they point to a telling data trend: SEIU 1021’s membership has declined in recent years,26 yet SEIU’s political spending has increased during the same period.27
Union political contributions and political action committee (PAC) activities are regulated. But beyond the required self-reported campaign filings, PACs are rarely subjected to deep independent scrutiny, much less enforcement of potential wrongdoing.
SEIU Local 1021’s PAC is called the Committee on Political Education (COPE), a legally separate and distinct entity from its general treasury.28 By law, union dues cannot be used for partisan political contributions; those must come from voluntary contributions to COPE. In theory, decision-making on political endorsements (and campaign donations) flow through member governance structures. In practice, some members contend that staff influence and hand-selected COPE committees dominate the endorsement process and silence the voices of dissenting rank-and-file workers.
The revolving door between union and city leadership
One example of the blurred line between union and city leadership is Zach Goldman, a current staff director for SEIU 1021 and former political director.29 He was appointed Chief of Policy and Legislative Affairs by former Mayor Sheng Thao immediately upon Thao taking office.
After Thao was recalled, Goldman returned to working for SEIU. He also serves on the Mayor’s Working Group on Charter Reform, appointed by Mayor Barbara Lee — another SEIU-endorsed candidate.30
If the unions are theoretically adversaries of the city to some degree, for example in labor contract negotiations and labor-management disputes, then why do union-endorsed city council candidates routinely hire senior union officials after winning office?
When the same individuals move back and forth between City Hall and union leadership, it is fair to ask whether negotiations are truly conducted at arm’s length. It is almost impossible to know, because labor contract negotiations are exclusively carried out in “closed sessions” of city council that take place out of public view.
This state of affairs also begs the question: in labor contract negotiations, is the city protecting the interests of the residents and businesses it only exists to serve, or is it functioning merely as an extension of the unions that financially contribute to helping city council members get elected and re-elected?
The parcel tax increase and “triggered”union pay raises
SEIU 1021 is currently leading a $400,000-plus campaign (to which SEIU has donated $200,000 to date) to support a $34 million parcel tax increase that the City Council has already built into the city’s budget. This adds a new question: why are unions funding a ballot initiative to raise taxes, rather than having the council place the tax increase directly on the ballot?
The answer, as noted by Oakland Report, appears to be that a “citizen-sponsored” initiative requires only simple-majority voter approval, whereas a council-led tax measure would require two-thirds approval. With Oakland’s electorate shifting and renters comprising a majority of voters, the lower approval threshold significantly improves the odds of passing a parcel tax — a political truism that is almost certainly not lost on SEIU or the city.
Oakland Report also reported yesterday that Oakland City Council approved multiple union contracts — including SEIU — in September 2025 that promise up to $14.9 million in “triggered” pay raises if the city ends the fiscal year with a budget surplus.31
The contracts also immediately awarded the unions cash bonuses up to $3,000 per employee, costing taxpayers a total of $10.2 million up front.
If the city’s desired parcel tax increase is not approved by voters, the city won’t achieve a budget surplus — and the unions won’t get the “triggered” raises promised in their contracts.
If Oakland city workers — in one of the most union-dominant cities in Northern California — vote to remove SEIU 1021, it will not just be a local labor dispute. It will be a referendum on the modern, big money political activism-based union model itself.
The views expressed in our Commentary section do not necessarily reflect the editorial views of Oakland Report or its contributing authors.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Seneca Scott is an Oakland- and Nashville-based political consultant, writer, and organizer working at the intersection of media, organizing and civic reform. A national CBS contributor, Scott’s writing and commentary have been published in Newsweek, Compact Magazine, City Journal, and The Free Press, where he focuses on government accountability, political realignment, and the future of American cities.
As an organizing director for multiple labor unions, Scott has built worker-led coalitions and negotiated complex agreements across California. He is a former East Bay Director for SEIU Local 1021, where he represented thousands of public-sector workers and led major contract campaigns and labor actions. He also is known for his leadership role in the successful recall of Oakland’s former mayor in 2024.
Scott holds a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Through consulting, media production, and organizing, he works to advance transparency, fiscal responsibility, and institutional reform at the local level. He is the producer of the video channel Gotham Oakland.
BECOME A DONATING MEMBER
We rely on our readers’ financial support to continue our work.
Your contributions are tax-deductible.
We are a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit based in beautiful Oakland, California. Our mission is to make truth more accessible to all Oakland residents. Learn more
Thank you!
Service Employees International Union Local 1021. “Our vision for power: activating thousands more member leaders to build power in our union and beyond.” Adopted at the SEIU 1021 Convention, September 27, 2015. https://www.seiu1021.org/sites/main/files/file-attachments/ourvisionforpower-adopted_september272015.pdf?1523999791
Oakland Report has reviewed the dues deduction list and verified the cited percentages. We are withholding publication of the list in order to protect the identities of the workers listed, per our policy for protecting confidential sources.
U.S. Department of Labor. “Form LM-2 labor organization annual report.” Service Employees International Union Local 1021, Reporting period from Jan. 1, 2022 through Dec. 31, 2022. https://olmsapps.dol.gov/query/orgReport.do?rptId=862170&rptForm=LM2Form
National Labor Relations Board. “Decertification election,” Accessed Feb. 22, 2026. https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights-we-protect/the-law/employees/decertification-election
Public Employment Relations Board. “Filing a decertification petition.” February 2021. https://perb.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/forms/decert-petition-filing-1370.pdf
City of Fremont Employee Association. “Our history.” Accessed Feb. 22, 2026. https://www.fremontcfea.org/about/history
Oakland Workers United. “Homepage.” Accessed Feb. 22, 2026. https://www.oaklandworkersunited.com/
Open Disclosure Oakland. “Oaklanders Defending Democracy, Oppose the Recall of Mayor Thao (Thao Ballot Measure Committee) Contributions.” https://www.opendisclosure.io/committee/1469604/
Ballotpedia. “Sheng Thao recall, Oakland, California (2024).” Accessed Feb. 22, 2026. https://ballotpedia.org/Sheng_Thao_recall,_Oakland,_California_%282024%29
Eby, Kate. “Timeline: FBI political corruption investigation involving Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, Duong family.” ABC 7 News, Jan. 17, 2025. https://abc7news.com/post/timeline-fbi-political-corruption-investigation-involving-oakland-mayor/15030417/
Scott, Seneca [@senecaspeaks21]. “Oakland Workers Unite to Break Free from SEIU 1021: Kickoff Rally Next Week.” X, Feb. 28, 2025. https://x.com/SenecaSpeaks21/status/1895543448448708631
Goldwater Institute. “When government employees are paid NOT to work.” Accessed Feb. 22, 2026. https://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/releasetime/
Service Employee International Union Local 1021. “Our history and vision.” Accessed Feb. 22, 2026. https://www.seiu1021.org/history-and-vision
SEIU Local 1021 executive board. “Executive summary of meetings.” Local 790 trial body decisions. Mar. 19, 2007, p. 9. https://www.seiu1021.org/sites/main/files/file-attachments/1021_executive_board_minutes_2007.pdf?1524071904
Forman, Erik. “The ‘organizing model’ goes global.” Labor Notes, Apr. 15, 2013. https://www.labornotes.org/2013/04/organizing-model-goes-global
Liberation Road. “Working people’s assemblies: social justice unionism for the 21st century.” Accessed Feb. 22, 2026. https://roadtoliberation.org/working-peoples-assemblies/
AFL-CIO. “Advocate for social and economic justice.” Accessed Feb. 22, 2026. https://aflcio.org/what-unions-do/social-economic-justice
Ballotpedia. “California Proposition 32, Ban on Political Contributions from Payroll Deductions Initiative (2012).” Accessed Feb. 22, 2026. https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_32,_Ban_on_Political_Contributions_from_Payroll_Deductions_Initiative_(2012)
International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10. “Bay Area locals mobilized for Oakland Mayor’s race, tip balance for Jean Quan.” Nov. 20, 2010. https://www.ilwu.org/bay-area-locals-mobilized-for-oakland-mayor%E2%80%99s-race-tip-balance-for-jean-quan/
International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 21. “2012 election rundown: we won!” Nov. 13, 2012. https://ifpte21.org/2012/11/13/2012-election-rundown-we-won/
Oakland Post contributors. “City workers rank Dan Siegel first choice for mayor.” Oakland Post, Aug. 9, 2014. https://www.postnewsgroup.com/city-workers-rank-dan-siegel-first-choice-mayor/
Boon, Ariel. “Moms 4 Housing organizer Carroll Fife takes on incumbent McElhaney in fierce Oakland council race over housing, policing.” 94.1 KPFA, Oct, 25, 2020. https://kpfa.org/featured-episode/oakland-organizer-carroll-fife-fights-to-unseat-incumbent-lynette-mcelhaney-in-fierce-d3-council-battle-over-housing-and-policing/
Shaw, Randy. “Sheng Thao unites Oakland progressives for mayoral run.” Beyond Chron, Nov. 16, 2021. https://beyondchron.org/oaklands-sheng-thao-unites-progressives-for-mayoral-run/
Open Disclosure Oakland. “Data for Oakland election on November 3, 2020.” Updated Dec. 31, 2025. https://www.opendisclosure.io/election/oakland/2020-11-03/
Oakland Post contributors. “After years of working remotely, Oakland requires all city employees to return to office by April 7.” Oakland Post, Feb. 19, 2025. https://www.postnewsgroup.com/after-years-of-working-remotely-oakland-requires-all-city-employees-to-return-to-office-by-april-7/
Reese, Jackson. “SEIU faces steep declines in membership and revenue.” California Policy Center, Mar. 31, 2024. https://californiapolicycenter.org/seiu-faces-steep-declines-in-membership-and-revenue/
Google Gemini. “In recent years, SEIU (primarily through Local 1021) has intensified its political spending in Oakland, shifting from traditional candidate support to aggressive funding of voter-sponsored ballot initiatives and recall defense to protect its bargaining power and revenue streams.” Accessed Feb. 22, 2026. https://share.google/aimode/EVYElk8h8ho2iKbtw
Service Employees International Union Local 1021. “COPE.” Accessed Feb. 22, 2026. https://www.seiu1021.org/cope
Public CEO contributors. “Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao announces appointments for interim city administrator, senior staff.” Public CEO, Jan. 25, 2023. https://www.publicceo.com/2023/01/oakland-mayor-sheng-thao-announces-appointments-for-interim-city-administrator-senior-staff/
Office of Mayor Barbara Lee. “Mayor Barbara Lee initiates efforts to reform Oakland’s charter.” July 23, 2025. https://www.mayorbarbaralee.com/release/mayor-barbara-lee-initiates-efforts-to-reform-oaklands-charter
Reinhart, Sean S. “44% of Oakland’s proposed $34 million tax increase would go to union payouts.” Oakland Report, Feb. 22, 2026. https://www.oaklandreport.org/p/20260222-parcel-tax-union-payout
See this related article:
 | A guest post by
|
Seneca, thank you for contributing your knowledge and perspective about unions in Oakland, and for providing the data and evidence to back up your assertions. Your article speaks for itself -- and the evidence it presents is compelling.
Thank you to Seneca and the Oakland Report, this report is excellent and should be circulated far a wide. Oakland is at a breaking point. Our city is being destroyed, losing talent, businesses, and hope because of a political class whose ideology is not the American way, endless tax hikes, and SEIU leadership. I need not say more on this question, you documented it so well in this article.
I stand firmly with SEIU members who are ready for real change. It's time to decertify SEIU Local 1021 and build a new, independent union.
The workers of Oakland deserve better. Our residents deserve better. We cannot keep pouring more money into a broken system that delivers less safety, fewer jobs, and crumbling infrastructure.
Let's end the abuse once and for all. Stop the relentless tax increases that are driving families and businesses out of Oakland. Instead, let's unleash real economic growth—bring back manufacturing, support small businesses, and create the revenue our city truly needs through prosperity, not punishment of more taxes to cover up for failed leadership.
Mindy Pechenuk
Candidate for Oakland Mayor 2026