evidence: SACRAMENTO, CA (April 20, 2023) – Members of SEIU Local 1000, the state’s largest public employee union representing more than 96,000 state workers, kicked off contract bargaining by calling for a 30% wage increase over three years (12% on 7/1/2023; 9% on 7/1/2024; and 9% on 7/1/2025) along with workplace and benefit protections. The demand is buoyed by detailed research from an independent study recently conducted by the University of California Berkeley Labor Center, which shows that more than two-thirds of SEIU Local 1000 state workers do not earn enough to support themselves and a child on their own. [...] "The governor has made ending extreme poverty a focus of his administration," continued Local 1000 VP Green. "We applaud and support that. Now he needs to make sure that our state employees aren’t impoverished."