A crisis doesn't build relationships. It reveals them.
Little wonder, then, that California's budget fiasco has exposed the deep antipathy many state workers hold for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The animosity has been years in the making, built brick-by-brick from events large and small. It starts with state workers' contention that their wages haven't kept up with inflation. Many believe Schwarzenegger is using the budget crisis to weaken employee unions and tamp down pay and benefits.
"He's really run state service into the ground," said state employee Bob Kelly. "People are upset. Where I work, they're leaving right and left."
Schwarzenegger's relationship with workers became more strained last week after his finance director laid out the governor's 2009-10 budget proposal. The plan includes a provision to allow the state to directly negotiate with providers for employee health insurance. The California Public Employees' Retirement System handles that duty now.
"We're looking at this skeptically," said Yvonne Walker, president of Service Employees International Union Local 1000, which represents 95,000 state workers. "This is the kind of thing that should be negotiated. When (Schwarzenegger) puts something like this out, you can't help but ask, 'What is his motivation?' "
State officials say the plan would save roughly $132 million, money that would help plug a budget hole expected to eventually grow to $40 billion.
"This isn't a power grab. We really are aiming to develop lower-cost options that still provide a solid health benefit package," said Lynelle Jolley, a Department of Personnel Administration spokeswoman.
CalPERS could lend its health care expertise, she said, "and we want to involve unions more directly in the plan design decisions."
But many state workers aren't swallowing it. They're still mad about the governor's summer order whacking thousands of part-time state jobs. They're angry he is still fighting a court battle to reduce full-timers' pay to the federal minimum $6.55 per hour. They're ticked that he ordered furloughs starting Feb. 1 and that he's fired up the bureaucratic machinery to execute layoffs.
Nor did it go unnoticed that two recent letters from Schwarzenegger to employees began with "Dear Valued State Worker," but a third, detailing the furlough and layoff plans, dropped "Valued" from the salutation.
To make matters worse, most state labor contracts expired last summer. Talks for new deals have gone slowly.
Schwarzenegger knows his employees are mad at him and realizes the toll the budget crisis is taking on state workers. "He understands how difficult this is, the program cuts, the layoffs, the furloughs," spokesman Aaron McLear said. "He doesn't want to make any of these decisions, but he has the responsibility to get us through this crisis."
Call The Bee's Jon Ortiz, (916) 321-1043. Read his blog, The State Worker, at sacbee.com/blogs.
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