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| Arbitrator favors prison officers' union in contract dispute |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 06/20/2005 |
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Leaders of the powerful Calif. prison officers' union can continue to spend tens of thousands of tax-paid hours on union business beyond what corrections officials say is allowed under their contract, an arbitrator ruled June 13. It's the latest development in an increasingly bitter dispute between the union and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration. The California Correctional Peace Officers Association accused prison officials of attempting to use a mistakenly written contract clause to force full-time union leaders to immediately go back to work at prisons. The Republican administration says it is now stuck with another lucrative concession to the union negotiated by former Gov. Gray Davis' Democratic administration. But it may appeal the arbitrator's decision. Arbitrator Carol Vendrillo ruled that union and Davis administration contract negotiators meant to remove a cap on the number of hours union leaders can spend on union business. The language was removed from one section of the contract but not another when it was negotiated in 2001. The five-year contract included 10,000 hours for union activity, but the state in May said union officials had used 122,387 hours. It ordered about a dozen union officials immediately back to work, a decision blocked by Vendrillo's decision. "This was a petty issue that they chose to try to exploit," said union Executive Vice President Lance Corcoran. "This is clearly an effort to silence people who were trying to hold corrections officials accountable." But Youth and Adult Correctional Agency spokesman J.P. Tremblay said it is "unfortunate that we're going to have to deal with another side deal that was made by the prior administration that the taxpayers are going to have to pay for. "You're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Probably a couple million bucks" over the life of the contract, Tremblay said. The dispute comes as the administration restructures the state's prison bureaucracy, and as it prepares for negotiations on a new contract to replace the one set to expire in July 2006. The union's 31,000 members are now voting whether to boost their $70 monthly dues by $33 to raise about $18.4 million fight the administration on the contract issue and Schwarzenegger's plan for a special election on a number of labor-opposed issues. |
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