Over the life of the deal, it would increase the annual base salary of top-step correctional officers from $73,700 to $83,000, including pension coverage. Under the union's current agreement, health benefits and a package of incentives can add as much as $16,000 more to an officer's total compensation package, not counting overtime.

California Correctional Peace Officers Association Vice President Chuck Alexander expressed reservations about the offer, the administration's first financial proposal to the union since the CCPOA's contract expired last July. He said it could result in his union losing ground to pay raises granted last year to the California Highway Patrol, an assertion the administration denied.

Subject to heavy scrutiny as a result of big pay raises and authority over some prison operations the union won in 2002, the CCPOA contract has taken on added significance this year.

Last summer, in the weeks after its labor contract expired, the union lobbied heavily to kill a prison expansion plan proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Without a contract, the union is likely to work the Capitol hallways in opposition again in coming weeks when Schwarzenegger's new, $10.9 billion effort to relieve inmate overcrowding goes to the Legislature.

Department of Personnel Administration Director David Gilb said Tuesday that the three-year deal would cost $738 million, including payments to sergeants, lieutenants and captains whose salaries are tied to the union contract. The costs for the 31,000 rank-and-file officers alone would amount to $622 million.

"It ain't cheap," Gilb said.

In exchange, the administration, in talks that have progressed in intermittent fashion over the past year, is seeking to regain the upper hand with the CCPOA when it comes to managing the prisons. Topping the list is prohibiting officers from counting sick leave toward weekly overtime.

State negotiators also are trying to streamline arbitration procedures and "clarify" the selection of arbitrators to get a more management-friendly pool, Gilb said.

Management also is seeking to curtail the CCPOA's ability to challenge and arbitrate changes in prison operations, cap accrued leave time that is used to pay union leaders, and reduce the ability of senior officers to choose their work assignments. Prison-to-prison transfers by officers also would be subject to more managerial control.

"They will give more flexibility to the state employer to make changes, and it is a very important time to make changes with the prison system in crisis," Gilb said. "We need a better way of resolving grievances, a little more flexibility in assigned shifts in certain areas and to determine when people can transfer."

Alexander harshly criticized virtually every item in the proposal, including the raises, which the state said would amount to 6.2 percent in the 2007-08 fiscal year, 4 percent in 2008-09 and 4.2 percent in 2009-10.

The union vice president said the state employed "funny math" to arrive at the percentage increases. "They haven't shown us how it's 6.2 percent in the first year," Alexander said. "It appears to be overinflated."

At "first blush," Alexander said, union officials believe the proposal extends the difference between what prison officers get compared with their counterparts in the CHP. Under the CCPOA's 2002 contract, top-step correctional officers were guaranteed a monthly salary $666 less than the CHP deal. Alexander said the union thinks the new deal would increase the separation to $1,000.

Gilb said the contract maintains the $666 spread. The CHP's 6,400 officers are paid according to a formula based on the salaries of Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego and San Francisco police.

As for the CCPOA, the state wants to eliminate the link to CHP pay once the new contract expires. Gilb, however, said the state has informally offered a fourth year tied to the CHP deal.

Alexander called the state's attempt to reassert managerial control "quite offensive."

"They think that by throwing a few shekels at us they will be able to take back all the stuff we've fought to get," he said.

The 14.3 percent proposed increase for correctional officers tracks with the raises the state gave to CHP officers and the engineers' union, Gilb said. But it would outstrip increases last year to the 87,000 employees represented by California's largest public employee union, Service Employees International Union Local 1000.

SEIU 1000 workers gained a 5.9 percent to 7.5 percent raise over two years, depending on cost of living, plus a retroactive $1,000 bonus that amounted to the equivalent of 2.3 percent.

SEIU 1000 spokesman Danny Beagle declined to comment on the CCPOA contract.

By Andy Furillo - The Sacramento Bee
April 4, 2007