Posted on 01/11/2006 12:06:23 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's new budget unveiled Tuesday contains no pay raises for the 156,000 rank-and-file state employees whose contracts have expired or are scheduled to run their course this year. Finance Director Mike Genest said the administration didn't include money for raises because "we don't want to presage what we plan to do at the negotiating table" with the nine unions representing 18 bargaining units that are already at the table or are about to take their seats across from the state's representatives.
Genest said "it's not uncommon" for the state to refrain from putting money in the budget for new contract agreements, but instead "to wait and see what the negotiations result in."
Jim Hard, president of Service Employees International Union Local 1000, which represents 90,000 workers in nine of the bargaining units, said the administration is "ignoring the human infrastructure of the state" by not yet including budget money for raises.
With the exception of prison nurses, who have received an 18 percent raise ordered by a federal court judge, SEIU 1000 members have gone more than two years without a raise, Hard said.
"There's an avoidance and a lack of leadership on (Schwarzenegger's) part to deal directly with the state work force," Hard said. "I don't know what's more central to an employer than their work force, and his avoiding the entire topic is an insult to state workers."
Although the budget doesn't mention raises, it also doesn't include any of the proposals from last year that public employee unions decried as outrageous. ...
Moreover, Schwarzenegger angered schoolteachers by proposing that the state reduce its contribution to their retirement by $469 million.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Boo hoo.
Why should the state show their hand and the unions don't have to? Great move Arnie.
Is this over and above the COLA raises they already get?
When a low level functionary at a Cal State school takes home $380,000/year, maybe they're already paid well enough.
Yes.
Well, I don't think they deserve them.
$131.1B?
129.9 (subject to change)
131.1
got it. ;-)
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