![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20260729_SJCITYWORKERS_GC-8-KQED.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA San Jose City employee holds a sign reading \u201cready to strike for our services\u201d at Strike School in San Jose on July 29, 2026. The move comes after months of gridlock between city leaders who argue San Jos\u00e9 is strapped for cash and workers who are demanding better pay.\u00a0\u00a0(Gina Castro for KQED)<\/p>\n
Thousands of San Jos\u00e9 city workers on Monday moved one step closer to a historic work stoppage by authorizing a strike<\/a> that could put librarians, parks workers and other municipal employees on the picket line.\u00a0<\/p>\n Members of two unions, IFPTE Local 21 and MEF-AFSCME Local 101, overwhelmingly approved a strike authorization vote giving union leaders the power to order a work stoppage of up to three days. The move comes after months of gridlock<\/a> between city leaders who argue San Jos\u00e9 is strapped for cash and workers who are demanding better pay.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest thing is wages,\u201d said Hannah Ornellas, an environmental services specialist who manages trash and recycling in the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n During her four-year tenure, Ornellas said she\u2019s seen massive attrition as coworkers leave for better-paying jurisdictions.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe loss of institutional knowledge is just really great,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd every year with new staff, we just have to spend so much time training new staff on all of these annual processes.\u201d<\/p>\n A potential work stoppage by the two unions, which collectively represent as many as 4,500 workers, would be San Jos\u00e9\u2019s largest since 1981. City officials have been preparing contingency plans. Just three years ago, the same unions came to the brink of a strike<\/a> before reaching an agreement with the city on raises.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, the city\u2019s fiscal outlook is much worse, said Aram Kouyoumdjian, San Jos\u00e9\u2019s director of human resources and employee relations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Members of two municipal unions overwhelmingly approved a strike authorization vote after months of gridlock in negotiations with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-435787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435787","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=435787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20260729_SJCITYWORKERS_GC-4-KQED.jpg\")
Kyle Wong, associate transportation specialist for the Department of Transportation, poses for a photo in San Jos\u00e9 on July 29, 2026.<\/p>\n