Anthropic sent San Francisco staff home over a strike the union says was never called

An AI lab emptied its offices for two days over a strike that, according to the union involved, was never called.

What happened

Business Insider reported that Anthropic told staff at its San Francisco offices to work remotely on Monday and Tuesday, August 24 and 25, 2026. The reason given internally was a warning from Allied Universal, the contractor that staffs the company’s security, that its workers might walk out.

Then the union responded. SEIU, which represents Allied Universal workers across California, said no strike authorization vote had been held and no strike had been threatened for that week.

Anthropic declined to comment on the stay-home instruction. Allied Universal did not respond to requests for comment.

The dispute that does exist

The labour conflict behind the warning is real, it is just not a strike. SEIU has been negotiating with Allied Universal and other California security companies since April 2026, seeking higher wages, better healthcare coverage and expanded job training for the workers it represents across the state.

That is the part of the story most likely to matter over time. Security, cleaning and facilities at large tech offices are typically contracted out, which means the people physically guarding an AI lab are employed by someone else and bargaining with someone else.

The gap in the middle

Anthropic normally asks employees to be in the office at least 25% of the time. For two days that figure was zero, on the basis of a warning passed along by a vendor whose own workers say they never made it.

There is no evidence of bad faith by anyone here; a contractor flagging a possible disruption and a client acting cautiously is ordinary risk management. What is striking is the shape of it. A company whose product is systems for reasoning under uncertainty acted for two days on an unverified second-hand signal, and the check that would have resolved it was a phone call to the union.