Their boss says one thing. Their union says another. Now tens of thousands of California state employees have to decide: Will they show up for work on Columbus Day?

Service Employees International Union Local 1000 has told its members to stay home the second Monday of this month in keeping with the holiday provisions in its last contract and the law.

But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration says the law has changed. Now employees who want Oct. 12 off must use personal leave time or their pay will be docked and they'll be disciplined.

The dispute has tightened workplace tensions among employees already stressed from losing 14 percent of their pay to Schwarzenegger's thrice-monthly "Furlough Fridays." Other unions are telling their members to work.

Local 1000 member Don Killmer says he won't be at his desk on Columbus Day.

"It's really very simple," the Education Department research and evaluation consultant said. "It's a holiday."

Killmer, a state worker for 17 years, knows he risks being disciplined. "This is a sword I'm willing to fall on," he said.

Many state workers don't share that commitment. Union leader Ron Benge said he tried to calm down members during a recent meeting about Columbus Day.

"People were getting upset with each other. So I said, 'No one is going to question whether you come in or take the day off,' " said Benge, a district president. " 'What you do is your business.' "

Many state workers interviewed by The Bee for this story declined to talk on the record, fearing reprisal from co-workers or their employer.

All but Killmer said that they would work because they can't afford the pay hit, don't want to risk discipline or don't know whom to believe.

Local 1000 steward Tom Peterson sent an e-mail to co-workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Yountville, recommending they work the day and request that it be counted for holiday compensation.

"I for one cannot and will not recommend that employees ignore the directive to work Columbus Day," wrote Peterson, a state worker of 35 years. "To ignore this order is to risk adverse action by the state."

When asked in a telephone interview why he sent an e-mail undercutting the union's request, Peterson said, "I have to protect my employees."

The controversy goes back to a bill legislators passed and the governor signed in February that eliminates Columbus Day and Lincoln's Birthday as paid holidays.

The measure anticipated concessions SEIU made in subsequent contract talks with the administration that exchanged the holidays for two floating personal days. The trade-off would have saved money by eliminating two days for which the state would have to pay premium wages.

But Republican lawmakers twice blocked the contract's ratification, so the union didn't get the personal time off in exchange.

Local 1000 believes the old expired holiday terms still apply because state law says expired labor contracts remain in force until a new deal is ratified. It contends Columbus Day and Lincoln's Birthday have to be bargained out. The administration says the new law means the holidays have to be bargained in.

In August, Local 1000 filed a grievance over the holiday takeaways. Last month, Yvonne Walker, the local's president, told the union's 95,000 members: "Oct. 12, 2009, is a holiday, and employees should not come to work."

The local continues to press for the stalled contract, and union leaders have authority to call workplace actions, including a strike, if they deem it necessary.

Walker wouldn't link her Columbus Day appeal to pressuring Republicans about the contract.

"The thought has never crossed my mind to connect the two," she said in a recent interview at Local 1000's Sacramento headquarters. "This is about standing up for what's right."

Still, UC Berkeley labor expert Ken Jacobs said the union's appeal has to be considered with the union's stalled labor deal.

"SEIU will be watching. This is a test of faith and a show of strength," Jacobs said. "It certainly looks like another step toward putting pressure on the Legislature to get the contract signed."

Of the 12 unions representing the 200,000 or so organized employees under Schwarzenegger's authority, only the California Association of Highway Patrolmen has a current contract and hasn't lost the holidays. None has joined Local 1000's call for workers to take Columbus Day off.

California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges, and Hearing Officers in State Employment has filed a lawsuit to keep Columbus Day and Lincoln's Birthday as paid state holidays, but it is telling its 3,700 members to work.

State labor contracts don't allow unions to tell members to ignore an order to work, the union said in an e-mail to its members.

"The fact that the state has unilaterally breached one section of the (contract) does not permit (us) to breach a different section of that contract," the e-mail said.

Professional Engineers in California Government also told its 11,000 or so members to follow the order, then file a grievance. "A long-established rule in labor relations is - obey now, grieve later," the union said in a e-mail sent to its state engineers.

Walker, the Local 1000 president, said the union will also file grievances for all the employees it covers, including those who work that day.

Ultimately that's where this will be settled, said Judy Bankert, who works for the Office of the State Fire Marshal in Sacramento.

"I will be coming to work," Bankert said. "They're wrong to take the holiday, but I will wait for the courts to straighten it out and give it back to us."

Call The Bee's Jon Ortiz, (916) 321-1043.