State Prison Guards Break With Union : Budget: The dissident employees contend that the Correctional Peace Officers Assn. has sold out to the Wilson Administration in accepting a 5% pay cut.

Dissident prison guards announced Wednesday that they are forming a breakaway union to challenge the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. over what they call a “sell-out” labor agreement with the Wilson Administration that would force them to take a 5% pay cut and make other concessions.

The guards said they are “outraged and disgusted” by the proposed contract, which was agreed to in September but still hasn’t been ratified.

Corrections officers currently are voting on the contract, and even CCPOA leaders are predicting that it will probably be rejected by rank-and-file union members.

When the contract was signed, Wilson hailed the agreement as a major budget savings that would save 1,000 jobs that otherwise would have to be eliminated. Wilson is demanding that all state employees accept a 5% pay cut, absorb increased costs of medical and dental insurance, and make other concessions in an effort to reduce the state payroll by $351 million.

The leadership of the CCPOA, which spent nearly $1 million to help elect Wilson last year, was the first and still is the only one of the 21 state employee bargaining groups to agree to Wilson’s pay and benefit demands.

Those heading the effort to form a new union said they are part of a “grass-roots movement” and are not getting financial help from any other unions.

Among other complaints, the rebel officers contend that CCPOA president Don Novey, a lieutenant in the Department of Corrections, is part of management.

“This is an officers’ union, representing correctional line officers, and it is being run by a lieutenant,” said Kurt Bender, a guard at Folsom Prison who is interim president of the fledgling union.

The dissidents, each of whom has given up membership in CCPOA in recent weeks, said they want to join other unions in resisting Wilson’s efforts to cut their pay, asserting that by giving in so easily, CCPOA leaders will make it easier for the governor to come back and cut their pay in the future.

“What we are doing, essentially, is preserving our right to a fight,” said Mark Lawler, a youth authority counselor from Paso Robles.

Leaders of the faction could not say how much support they currently have. They said the response to a fact sheet they circulated was “overwhelming,” and said there was widespread dissatisfaction with the proposed contract.

Organizers of the upstart union, in order to force an election, are required by state law to get valid signatures on petitions of 30% of the 21,500 corrections officers, probation officers and California Youth Authority counselors represented by CCPOA.

Lou Ohls, the executive vice president of CCPOA, said union officials agreed to take the pay cut in recognition of the severe budget problems facing the state and in an effort to save jobs in the corrections system.

“What we are doing is attempting to work in damage control rather than being part of the problem. Even after (tax increases and budget cuts) made by the Administration, we are still looking at between a $2 billion and $3 billion deficit in the current year’s budget, and it is unrealistic to become militant about a pay raise when the economic realities are not there,” he said.