check the court\u2019s website (opens in new tab)<\/a> for their status.<\/p>\nAt the Civic Center Courthouse, open departments included mental health conservatorship, unified family court, juvenile dependency, real property, and civil harassment calendars, along with two civil courtrooms handling a limited number of criminal trials that must proceed due to time requirements.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the Hall of Justice, departments handling preliminary hearings, domestic violence and felony arraignments, mental health court, and the misdemeanor and criminal master calendars were among those that remained operational. The Juvenile Justice Center kept its juvenile delinquency department open.<\/p>\n
The court\u2019s self-help center, known as the ACCESS Center, was open only for unlawful detainer matters.<\/p>\n
Mounting backlog<\/p>\n
Hebert noted that even before the strike, hearings at the master misdemeanor department, where she works, were being continued as far out as June. The longer the strike lasts, the worse the backlog will grow. \u201cAny delay causes future delays,\u201d Borders said.<\/p>\n
He noted that this walkout has already lasted longer than previous one-day stoppages: \u201cI don\u2019t think they really understand what they\u2019re looking at as far as the congestion that this is going to cause.\u201d<\/p>\n
The core grievances<\/p>\n
The clerks\u2019 complaints center on three interconnected problems: chronic understaffing, a court-mandated computer system that they say doubles their workload, and a training program that relies on email rather than in-person instruction.<\/p>\n
Hebert said a case management system was imposed on clerks a few years ago without their input and has made entering case data significantly more time-consuming. \u201cThe system we have currently makes doing our entries take double the time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Borders described the staffing and training problems as tightly linked. Because the Hall of Justice division is short-handed, clerks are routinely asked to cover courtrooms outside their areas of expertise \u2014 a practice he said invites errors that have real legal consequences.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s various courtrooms that have nuances which need a specific procedure and terminology and paperwork,\u201d Borders said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have the experience and the training to be able to compensate in that position, it could lead to errors being made.\u201d<\/p>\n
A surge in criminal cases brought by the district attorney\u2019s office has compounded the problem. \u201cThe court has had an ample opportunity to make adjustments \u2014 hiring or reorganizing \u2014 to try to alleviate some of it,\u201d Borders said. \u201cThey\u2019ve done basically nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Where negotiations stand<\/p>\n
The court has offered clerks a 6.5% wage increase over three years \u2014 2% annually, with an additional 0.5% in October, contingent on the court receiving additional state funding. The offer also included stepped increases to biweekly health benefits, from $1,643 in January 2027 to $1,811 by January 2029.<\/p>\n
The two sides reached a tentative agreement in October, averting a threatened strike, but the union\u2019s rank and file rejected the deal. In November, the union presented a new package with higher wages and additional terms that the court described as \u201cregressive bad-faith bargaining.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The bad blood deepened this month when the court accused SEIU Local 1021 of failing to bargain in good faith on Feb. 13 and filed an unfair practice charge with the Public Employment Relations Board.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is unfortunate that SEIU has decided to disrupt court services after more than 28 bargaining sessions and two mediation sessions,\u201d said Brandon Riley, CEO of the Superior Court in San Francisco, who noted that deals have been reached with three other unions representing court employees.<\/p>\n
Borders said a line of communication with the union has reopened, and \u201cthere\u2019s some movement happening.\u201d Hebert said the union planned to meet Friday to discuss a new offer from management. No formal bargaining session was scheduled.<\/p>\n
The union has directed some frustration at Riley. \u201cHis response has been pretty much nonexistent,\u201d Borders said. \u201cHe prefers to remain kind of an unknown figure. I think he should take more ownership of the situation happening here.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement Friday, Riley said that \u201cthe court and SEIU are committed to good-faith bargaining.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the season of labor strife in San Francisco. The city\u2019s teachers got raises and their healthcare premiums…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[1312,845,101,55905,103,102,89555,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-197209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-courts","9":"tag-labor","10":"tag-san-francisco","11":"tag-san-francisco-county-superior-court","12":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","13":"tag-san-francisco-news","14":"tag-seiu-local-1021","15":"tag-sf","16":"tag-sf-headlines","17":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}