Dan Walters: Guards union gets the shaft

Sacramento Bee ^ | 9/14/7 | Dan Walters

[SmithL]

Many strange things happen on the final night of a state legislative session - bills that mysteriously appear or disappear, verbal and physical confrontations between overtired and/or overstimulated politicians, floor debates that deteriorate into gibberish, to name but a few.

It would be difficult, however, to top the odd melodrama that played itself out in the wee hours of Wednesday morning when the union that represents prison guards tried a power play and, to use a term common inside the prisons, was "punked" by legislative leaders.

It all had to do with the monthslong impasse between the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), one of the state's most powerful political interest groups, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger over a new contract.

Money is not the major issue in the stalemate. Schwarzenegger has offered a generous salary increase; it is, rather, a conflict over some sweetheart provisions of the contract that his predecessor, Gray Davis, granted the CCPOA under its legendary former leader, Don Novey. CCPOA President Mike Jimenez, with a cadre of prison guards and lobbyists, camped in the Capitol on Tuesday and shopped around legislation - there were several versions - that would bypass contract negotiations and give guards a pay raise.

Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City, a major recipient of CCPOA campaign funds, became the measure's nominal author. After hours of backroom finagling - largely over whether prison salaries would be tied to those in the California Highway Patrol - senators waived rules, and a bill was amended on the Senate floor. Ostensibly, the measure would give guards two retroactive salary increases of 3.5 percent and 6.1 percent.

The Senate Appropriations Committee convened to give the maneuver a veneer of openness, but it dissolved in confusion

[SmithL]

Wait until the State imposes a contract on them: State negotiators threaten to impose contract on guards

[MIchaelTArchangel]

Hasn’t the guards’ union been giving the taxpayers of Kalee-for-nee-uh the shaft for years?

[goldstategop]

They're tough on law and order. No politician is going to run against locking more criminals up. That's how prison guards make their living - and explains why the CCPOA is such a powerful force in California politics.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[DoughtyOne]

I thought these guys had pretty much ruled the roost under Schwarzenegger. Is that not accurate? If it is, they can stand to lose one once in a while.

[SmithL]

They certainly ruled the roost under Gray Davis. The CCPOA, teachers, and other public service unions soundly defeated Schwarzenegger at the polls a couple of years ago. That’s when he abandoned his grand plan to “blow up boxes” in Sacramento and move on to “post-partisanship” politics.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for the comments. I thought the CCPOA had gotten raises a few years back, or was it a status change issue. At any rate, it seemed we hadn’t been very happy about that. Perhaps I’m not remembering accurately.