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The union representing California's prison guards says it's willing to accept pay cuts if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration will give them more say over prison closings and future staffing levels.
In the high-stakes posturing that's been going on for months between Schwarzenegger's administration and the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, a letter sent Friday by the union marks the first time officials have signaled that pay cuts could be acceptable in exchange for other commitments on job security.
Mike Jimenez, president of the union, faxed administration officials a letter that said his 28,000 members would be "interested in obtaining a global agreement" that opened a number of issues to negotiation.
"A global agreement is necessary from our perspective since, as you know, any agreement affecting members' compensation needs to be ratified by a vote of our membership," said Jimenez's letter, which went to the Department of Personnel Administration and legislative leaders.
"Without addressing all relevant issues such as layoffs, transfers and institutional closures, the prospects of the membership ratifying such an agreement is slim."
The letter also said that the union needs assurances that a renegotiated contract "will stick" until the contract expires in 2006 and that the administration doesn't "intend to seek serial negotiations over our contract."
Neither the Department of Personnel Administration nor anyone on Schwarzenegger's staff would comment on the letter, but sources said it was unlikely the administration would add issues such as prison closings to any discussion on wages and fringe benefits.
Schwarzenegger, who has said repeatedly that he's not beholden to the union because - unlike past governors - he won't take CCPOA campaign contributions, wants to cut several hundred million dollars from a pay and benefits package approved by the Legislature and former Gov. Gray Davis in 2001.
The pact has drawn criticism because it allows guards' pay to increase about 35 percent over five years.
"I believe it is in the best interest of the state and your membership," the administration wrote union leaders last month, "to explore contract concessions as possible alternatives to the fiscal crisis within (the state prison system.)"
In past statements, union officials have suggested the department could save millions by cutting waste or by slashing salaries of top corrections bureaucrats.
But Schwarzenegger has been applying more pressure to the union in recent weeks.
Last week, for instance, in a move interpreted around the Capitol to show Schwarzenegger means business, his Finance Department sent out letters notifying state employee unions that each of their pay packages would be listed in the budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
The move invites legislators and the governor to underfund the contracts in the state budget and force the unions to negotiate concessions.
The Republican governor has also appointed a committee to recommend a variety of corrections reforms that include possible prison closings because the state's inmate population has been shrinking.
Both moves are seen as a threat to the powerful correctional officers union, which in recent years has contributed millions of dollars to the campaigns of state and local officials.
In Jimenez's letter, he suggested the idea of a "global" agreement comes directly from Schwarzenegger's own words.
The letter quotes a Schwarzenegger interview with a reporter in which the governor said he has to look at "the whole picture" when negotiating with the CCPOA. "Which means that you have to look at the problems that are potentially coming up. And all the things that you're negotiating."
"We completely agree with the governor's view and would like to proceed along the lines," Jimenez wrote in the letter to the Department of Personnel Administration's labor relations officer, Tim Virga. "We do not think that it is reasonable for you, as the governor's agent, to expect us to ignore the governor's stated method of negotiation and proceed in any other manner."
Jimenez did not return a reporter's phone calls seeking comment, but Lance Corcoran, the union's vice president and spokesman, said the administration negotiators have not shown that they're prepared to do anything other than demand concessions. "They can't answer the questions that have been listed in Mike's letter," Corcoran said.
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