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Whitehead, Weintraub, and WagesBy Jeffrey W. ZekasAccording to English philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, "There are no truths; all truths are half-truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil." Government reports have a long history of being filled with half-truths and of giving misleading conclusions. From the lone gunman theory of the Warren Report, to the recent waterboarding controversy, official reports are neither accurate nor truthful in their recommendations. Given the partisan nature of these reports, it is surprising that The Sacramento Bee's Daniel Weintraub would use the Legislative Analyst's Office report on prison labor in making an argument against raising the salaries of correctional officers. (from Weintraub's editorial: "California's prison system is big and is getting bigger. It is so large that the members of the union that represents correctional officers now account for one of every seven state employees. The salaries and benefits of those employees and their supervisors total 40 percent of all the personnel costs in the state's general fund... About 130,000 job applications are received by the prison agency every year, the equivalent of one for every 140 people in the California labor force. And with ramped up training and expanded academies, the state is hiring more officers than it is losing, reducing the number of vacancies in the prisons... The compensation should be determined not by the union's political clout or anyone's subjective judgment of how dangerous a position might be. The pay and benefits should be whatever it takes to recruit and retain qualified people to fill those jobs... It appears the current compensation package for correctional officers is more than sufficient to meet those goals.")Weintraub argues that correctional officers should not receive pay raises. He also suggests that officers should make LESS, since there are so many applicants for the job. His logic is not only twisted, but also a reflection of the scrooge mentality afflicting many employers. Contrary to Weintraub logic, most of us would agree that if a job is dangerous, requires special skills, or involves education or training, we should pay more for those professions. This is why NFL players, despite "only having a high school education," are paid more than Bee writers! Why don't we hear Weintraub and his rich cronies attacking the San Francisco 49ers? After all, many football players, like correctional officers, only have high school diplomas, and those players make way more money than correctional officers. I guess it's easier for newspaper journalists to attack correctional peace officers than to criticize superstar athletes. Now for the facts. Our officers are required to attend hundreds of hours of training (they attend an arduous 16-week academy) both on and off the job. They are educated-many have received their bachelor's degrees as well as master's degrees-and their job is very dangerous. If you don't believe that, just ask the family of Manny Gonzalez, an officer murdered by an inmate in 2005. Officers work long hours and, yes, get paid overtime for those long hours. Would Weintraub expect them to work for free? Our officers do a thankless job that neither Weintraub nor his cohorts would be willing to do for any amount of money. As for the officers' union, membership in a union is a right guaranteed by U.S. law. An officer can certainly choose not to join the union (membership is voluntary), and still receive union benefits. California's correctional peace officers organized a union because prior to the union, in 1970, a prison guard earned only $600 a month. And, at that time, guards had no training, no education, no protective equipment, no side-handle batons, and no alarms. They had only a whistle and their wits for protection. And, before the union a guard's retirement (if he lived that long) was $240 per month. That is where we came from and we don't want to go back. But in addition to joining a union to receive decent pay and benefits, people also join unions for protection. Many corporations despise the unions because they give the workers rights: the right to speak out against abuse, the right to pick one's job assignment, the right to expose corrupt bosses, and the right to sue for better, safer working conditions. In spite of Weintraub's suggestions, the union is less influential than the rich business lobbies. And contrary to Weintraub's writings, the salaries of correctional officers are not a major cost to the state, as 41 percent of California's budget goes to schools and 25.3 percent to Health and Human Services (welfare). All of Corrections is only 7.3 percent of the budget. Out of that amount, officer salaries actually account for less than 3 percent of the total state budget. With gasoline rising to $4 per gallon, and inflation at over 5 percent, no pay raise means a pay cut-for a job that is dangerous, dirty, and difficult. Unfortunately, ignoring or manipulating the facts has been commonplace for reporters and editorial writers at The Bee. When you have an agenda, fair and balanced reporting goes out the window. After all, as most working folks know, only rich men who own newspapers have freedom of speech. The rest of us go online and read blogs. * * * * * Many thanks to Officer Zekas for writing-to the Peacekeeper and The Bee. I guess the bottom line is that the fight for truth in journalism continues. If you had a chance to read the LAO report (check out www.lao.ca.gov), let us know. Put your thoughts in a letter and send it to the Peacekeeper. We want to hear from our members. If The Bee and other mainstream media folks won't print your comments, we will. This magazine is distributed to every member of the state Legislature, as well as many public libraries and state universities. We may not have barrels of ink sitting in storage, but we are not without opportunities to get the facts out to many people who are in a position to influence public opinion. - Editor  Print This PageBack to Volume 25, Issue 3 Back to PEACEKeeper Main Page |
