The Governor vs. the Unions
January 24, 2010
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Our governor's budget plans and priorities for his last year in office have unions up in arms.
The L.A. Times explains why:
Schwarzenegger's proposals would cut the size of the union workforce, reduce pay, shrink future pensions and roll back job protections won through collective bargaining.....Among the plans in the governor's budget: privatize prisons, which would strip members from the influential guards union; curtail seniority protections for teachers, a key union-won protection; and reduce the number of sick, disabled and elderly Californians cared for through the state's In-Home Supportive Services program -- almost all union jobs -- while cutting what their caregivers are paid.Schwarzenegger also wants to permanently lower state workforce salaries by 5% without returning to the bargaining table with public-sector unions. And he would require state workers to chip 5% more into their retirement plans
Unions are prepared to give him a political fight, and the state's Democratic politicians are as well. And history shows that they are capable of defeating the governor when they try:
In 2005, Schwarzenegger went to the ballot with four measures that would have rolled back pensions, unions' abilities to collect dues and job protections. The unions fought back with a $100-million campaign and defeated all four of the governor's proposals.
And it isn't like Schwarzenegger has a lot of voter love to convince politicians who will have to face re-election again, unlike the Gov., to stand behind him. A new pollshows only 7 percent of voters believing Schwarzenegger is leaving the state better off than he found it.
(Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
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