CCPOA.org - 5150 Hotline Archive : October 23, 2007

CCPOA - 5150 Hotline from Lance Corcoran

5150 update - Oct. 23, 2007
Hello and thank you for calling the CCPOA 5150 hotline - today is Monday, October 22, 2007, and here is the latest from Sacramento.

First off - many members have expressed frustration at the amount of time the last message was left on the 5150. I apologize for the delay but right now is a time when it is very difficult to give a clear and defined message. Both the state and CCPOA are in uncharted waters regarding the implementation of the states attempt to strip unit 6 members of many of the rights CCPOA has won over the last 25 years. This is new territory for both sides and after what started out as a flurry of activity - things seem to be settling down a bit.

Here is what has happened so far - in September CCPOA filed a request for injunction with the Public Employees Relations Board aka, PERB, which asked for a stop to the implementation of the states Last, Best, and Final offer. PERB rejected the request for injunction on October 7th. CCPOA has also filed an unfair labor charge with PERB regarding the last, best, and final and we are currently waiting to see if PERB will issue a complaint. If a complaint is issued then there will be a hearing to determine how the complaint will be litigated. Once that is determined then there will be dates set for hearings. If PERB denies our unfair labor charge then CCPOA will proceed to Superior Court for injunctive relief. Isn't the legal process fun?

Due to the fact that neither side has been down this road before - the process has been a little slow. The state has not moved terribly quickly to implement many of the terms of the last best and final may be because many of the areas will likely be subject to legal action. Our attorneys are pouring through government codes to determine where the state may have overstepped their authority. We want to see what Government Code sections have sprung back to life in the absence of a contract. This takes an incredible amount of time.

A couple of the areas where we have active litigation are the following: we have a claim before the Labor Workforce and Development Agency regarding meal breaks and the eight hour day. We are claiming that without a contract where we waive this benefit that our members are entitled to meal breaks and potentially overtime after 8 hours. We also have a December court date to eliminate the apprenticeship program. When the state did away with CPOST the Department of Labor withdrew it's accreditation of the apprenticeship program. Even though CDCR continues to indenture new hires there is no process for an apprentice to be certified as a journey person. This litigation could have a profound impact on the pay scales of officers. As these cases and the unfair labor practice claim move through the process you can check back on the 5150 for updates.

Many members want to know how we got here. After we negotiated the 2001 - 2006 contract there was intense focus on the language of that contract. Many, including every newspaper, some members of the legislature, and even some members of the public thought we got too much. Some said the state had been "out-gunned, out worked, and out smarted." Even the federal courts got involved by holding hearing to determine if the state had given away too much of it's management rights. By the way, the court ruled that they hadn't given away their ability to manage - the CDCR just didn't manage very well.

So, the state in 2006 hires an outside negotiator and legal counsel strictly to deal with Unit 6 on our new contract. In July of 2006 the main negotiators for both sides met and the state basically said that there were only six issues that it wanted to fix - sick leave abuse, PIE sick leave in effect paying three people for one post, flexibility in 27.01, the backlog in the grievance procedure, more flexibility in Post and Bid, and more flexibility in DJJ staffing. CCPOA had 5 issues, understaffing/overcrowding, training and safety equipment, a working complaint process, an impartial and fair investigation process, and to honor our old deal by giving us the pay increases they were supposed to, in essence, the issues that were in Pay Arb 1. Sounds like we weren't too far off - right?

Well nothing is ever as easy as it sounds. The state also wanted to break away from the salary formula that was negotiated in 2001 after they had just given the Highway Patrol a contract with large raises. We felt that the formula was fair and helped us recruit the thousands of officers we need to fill our vacancies. The state also did not want an open negotiating process - we were tired of being accused of cutting secret deals and wanted everything out in the open. The state refused to sign ground rules, refused to answer basic questions and information requests and began passing "all or nothing" packages - stating you take everything in the package and we are not going to negotiate section by section. So when you hear or read that there was frustration on our part and some people used some choice words you may begin to understand why.

In mid-June of 2007, the state and CCPOA are sent to mediation by PERB. In August of 2007, Arbitrator Norman Brand found in favor of the state in pay Arb 2. That was the arbitration where CCPOA argued that our members continued to be tied to the CHP even after the expiration of the contract. The decision ended the tie to the CHP unless we negotiated it into the next contract. After this decision the state had no reason to continue bargaining with CCPOA. That is what led to CCPOA withdrawing from the mediation process which was not working anyway, and trying to roll our last contract over and achieve raises through the legislative process. Something we may, and I want to emphasize MAY try again.

DPA is trying to paint us and our members as greedy guards who are only about the money and not interested in modest reforms. The only problem is the reforms are not modest - and when we went to the legislature they saw that. This administration has not. In order for reforms to occur you need a workforce that trusts it's management team to do the right thing, and while there are many very good managers in CDCR - it's the bad ones that we end up dealing with the most. That is why most of the sections of the contract were there in the first place - because of past abuses - like job changing people constantly - and harassing people with investigations.

Our state Board of Directors will be meeting this Friday and Saturday in Sacramento at the Holiday Inn Downtown. The meeting will start at noon of Friday - feel free to stop by if you can. During the meeting the Board will be discussing our strategy for the future and members are welcome.

Just as a reminder - we have been through tough time before. In the 70's we had to fight just to get collective bargaining - in the 80's we negotiated our first contract and it wasn't until 1989 that we even came close to parity with the CHP, in 1991 we had a contract that proposed a 5% pay cut voted down by the membership 10 - 1 and then still had to take a 5% cut for a year - we also went without a contract and arbitration from 1995-1998 and then came in with a 6 month deal that had no money in it - then we had the 7k contract until 2001. Now arguably we hit a grand slam with the 2001 contract - we are fighting to make sure we protect the gains that we have made - but there have been hard times in the past.

To be sure we have taken some hits lately - but now as in the past - it's time to close ranks and stand together and remain in complete support of CCPOA. Now is the time CCPOA needs our membership to remain strong, committed, and professional. Again I apologize for the delay between messages, we are working on issues constantly and sometimes information changes very rapidly. Also, not just CCPOA members call this line so we cannot always get into our specific strategy regarding ongoing issues. Keep checking back for updates, you can leave a message if you like after the beep. Take care and have a safe shift.

5150 Hotline Archive