Posted on 10/08/2010 8:14:45 AM PDT by SmithL
The new labor deal between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California's biggest state employee union marks a significant turn in the state's labor drama – and not just because it affects about half the state's unionized work force.
Wednesday's near-midnight announcement of a tentative pact with Local 1000 of Service Employees International Union underscored the mounting pressure on labor to cut deals now or risk greater losses.
Even Democratic legislators, usually labor allies, appeared poised Thursday to close California's $19 billion budget gap with legislation allowing furloughs for state workers whose unions don't agree to contract concessions.
Meanwhile, SEIU's new deal made the 95,000-employee union the seventh to reach a deal in the past few months. Its agreement, like the previous six that cover 37,000 workers, lowers pension promises for new hires and boosts what current employees pay toward retirement. Four of those earlier deals include unpaid time off, as does the SEIU deal.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
This is window dressing unless the numbers indicate that there is sufficient in the pension funds to support these pensions.
Honestly it would be cheaper to just send them all home and pay them a stipend then shut their various departments down.
It wouldn’t right but it wouldn’t cost less.
would* cost less.
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