Now that the state is no longer in the grips of a budget crisis, public employee unions are optimistic that they finally have some leverage to negotiate a raise.
Will Gov. Jerry Brown hold the line on spending, as he has vowed, and keep salaries in check?
The Times’ Chris Megerian takes a look at the issue in a article Monday.
He writes that contracts for almost half of the state’s 350,000 employees come due this summer. And the biggest unions negotiating them will be sitting across the bargaining table from an administration grateful for all that the unions did to help pass Brown’s tax-hike plan in November.
Regardless of the politics, labor leaders say raises are long overdue. They note it has been a tough several years for state workers. They have been battered by furloughs and salary freezes. The pension benefits offered newly hired workers have been scaled back.
But California’s workers still earn salaries that, on average, are far beyond what government employees earn elsewhere. And fiscal conservatives note the state is still teetering financially.
"The hope is that [Brown] goes into these negotiations with the same sense of austerity he's been talking about," said Assemblyman Jeff Gorell (R-Camarillo), vice chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee. He warned every dollar spent on state worker raises is a dollar that comes out of another government program.
Will California state workers get a big salary bump? - latimes.com
4 comments:
It costs a fortune to live here! Plus we get treated like shit by our employer. I think a higher salary is a trade off.
what they say is a complete fiction. Go look at what most other state employees get i other states, even cash strapped ones and you will see we are on the bottom of the list,,,,
Not to mention most of us don't seek raises. We only want t our full pay check back without PLP or furloughs.
But a raise would be nice. The unuons helped you Jerry, time to pay the piper!
No big salary bump, put we will be told it's another great contract. Dreams or reality, bank on the political aspects of the agenda of all involved. The state has a stacked deck prepared for them by union leadership's who put themselves in a trick bag with a bow on it.
Consequently, if we don't have competent lawyers on our side of the table, you'll find we're screwed.
Has any body heard anything from union leadership, no chatter at all! The silence is beginning to sounds like defeat about to be forced upon us again. Why, because the leadership put us in no position to fight as long as they are in control management keeps a stacked deck. We'll be lucky to get the raise promised in the current contract. Think about it, how long did we get our full wages the last go round?
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