SACRAMENTO, CA - Contract talks between the California Correctional Peace Officers Association and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Department of Personnel Administration got off to a rocky start last week when the union tried to videotape the proceedings, prompting state negotiators to walk out.

CCPOA Vice President Chuck Alexander said Tuesday the union wanted to tape the talks because "we're tired of being blamed for all the woes" of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in the wake of the about-to-expire 2002 labor agreement. The state's chief negotiator said in a letter to the union that he felt the videotaping was "unacceptable and not conducive to good faith negotiations."

No new bargaining sessions have been scheduled. The CCPOA's contract, which covers an estimated 30,000 rank-and-file prison workers, is set to expire July 1.

Talks between the two sides were expected to be rancorous, with the state coming out aggressively in its April "sunshine" notices seeking to reassert its managerial authority over the state's youth and adult prison system on issues ranging from staffing assignments to the use of overtime to the system's disciplinary process.

Neither side has yet to bring up the topic of money, which also is bound to attract wide scrutiny this year following the 2002 agreement that, according to a 2004 Department of Finance study, was projected to cost taxpayers $2 billion over its lifespan.

Exactly how difficult the bargaining will be was signaled just 17 minutes into last Friday's opening bargaining session, when the state's negotiators picked up and left the talks that were held at the CCPOA's headquarters in West Sacramento. They said they were miffed over what it described as the "unilateral action" of the union setting up the videotape recording equipment, according to the letter.

"We're not going to take this too seriously," Department of Personnel Administration spokesman Lynelle Jolley said of the early breakdown in talks with the CCPOA. "We know that to have bargaining sessions, we need to get down to business and leave the gimmicks back at the office."

Alexander, however, cracked that state negotiators "don't believe in that kind of transparency, apparently." And with or without cameras, he vowed that the CCPOA will remain aggressive and "ready to fight" as the talks unfold.

"We've had more backlogged grievances than we've ever had before," Alexander said. "Overcrowding is worse than we've ever had before. We have more staff vacancies than we've ever had before. And we have absolutely the worst labor relations my 19 years on the department has ever seen.

"We've been completely demonized by the department as being the bane and cause of all the problems," Alexander. "So to avoid those issues in the future, we were going to videotape."

Politics will provide a backdrop to the discussions, with the union having played a leading role in defeating Schwarzenegger's special election agenda last year and sitting on a mountain of campaign cash that is expected this year to exceed $10 million. It has not endorsed a candidate for governor yet this year, after having spent millions in the past on behalf of Democratic winner Gray Davis and Republican victor Pete Wilson.

Also at last Friday's brief session, the union asked the state to sign a document stating that it had "full authority" to negotiate a new contract, in light of federal court orders that have placed a receiver over the prison health care system and also govern internal discipline as well as some labor contract provisions.

State negotiators refused to sign the document.

"If they don't have the authority," Alexander said, "they need to invite the court in (to the negotiations) so they do have the full authority."

Jolley declined to comment on what impact the court cases might have on labor talks. Rachel Kagan, the spokeswoman for Robert Sillen, the receiver appointed to oversee health care in the prisons, said it is premature to comment on how the contract might affect health care.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Kagan said. "If there's an impediment in the contract to health care reform, that will be addressed in time. But we have no desire of inserting ourselves in contract negotiations as they go in their normal course."

The CCPOA represents 1,400 medical technical assistants. Its rank-and-file officers also are key players in the system's health care, accompanying prisoners to and from doctor visits and often acting as sick inmates' first point of contact.