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| Gov. Defends Corrections officer's contract |
| By Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writer , San Francisco Chronicle |
| Published: 04/22/2011 |
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Gov. Jerry Brown this week slammed Republican lawmakers and other critics of a contract agreement he made with the 30,000-member prison guards union, saying the deal is virtually identical to pacts his Republican predecessor made with other unions that they readily supported. The agreements with the California Correctional Police Officers Association and five other public employee unions representing another 20,000 state workers were seen as a victory for Brown's administration until GOP lawmakers began picking them apart. Critics say the contract proposals won't cut state spending by nearly enough. That claim was bolstered this week when a nonpartisan analyst concluded the deals will save $129 million less than Brown estimated in his budget plan.
"Collective bargaining is about give and take ... and we think we did a good deal," a peeved Brown told The Chronicle this week. "You have to create a balance and work with your workforce. The legislators can come up here and mouth off, but you can't run a state having warfare with all of your employees, which is what happened with the last administration." The governor will need at least four Republican legislators - two in each house - to win approval for the contract bill, known as SB151. He argued that the prison guards' contract not only cuts millions out of the budget, but will give management more flexibility to make changes at prisons without being challenged by the union - a concession that state officials had tried to win for years. Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the correctional officers association had a notoriously nasty relationship, and the prison guards had been working without a contract since 2006. Brown noted other victories, including that the contract would end a state-funded, $42 million-a-year 401(k)-type plan that correctional officers received in addition to their pensions. He said the guards have also agreed to support the transfer of thousands of inmates out of state prisons and into local jails. Overall, the six contracts would, among other things, do away with imposed furloughs, increase state employees' pension contributions and temporarily cut pay for a year before giving top earners a raise in 2013. Schwarzenegger negotiated the same terms with other public worker unions last fall, and lawmakers approved those contracts. But opposition to the new agreements was fueled this week when the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office concluded the six contracts would result in only about $179 million in savings next fiscal year for the deficit-plagued general fund, not the $308 million assumed in the 2011-12 budget approved by lawmakers last month. Those savings will disappear by 2012-13, the analyst said, when costs will begin to climb once again. Republican lawmakers said the discrepancy is a major problem, because the state is facing a $26.6 billion deficit. Read More. |
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