Prison Guards, State Strike Deal on 5-Year Pact

The Davis administration has reached a tentative five-year contract with the influential union representing California prison guards that could boost their pay by roughly 25% in the later years, administration and union officials said Friday.

The California Correction Peace Officers Assn. will receive 2.5% more take-home pay in each of the first two years of the contract, but no actual pay hike. Rather, the state will pay a larger percentage of their pension contributions. That follows a pattern set in negotiations with other state employee unions that already have agreed to deals.

But in the final three years of the contract, the 28,000-member union will receive pay hikes equal to those granted by major police agencies in the state, such as the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and California Highway Patrol.

“It could be [a raise of] 20% to 30%, back-loaded in the out-years,” said Marty Morgenstern, director of the state Department of Personnel Administration. “It depends on how much L.A. pays its cops. It helps us out during the first two years, when we don’t have a lot of money, and in the long run it brings them to the same [pay level] as other law enforcement.”

In negotiations, the administration has been limiting pay hikes this year and in 2002 because the state faces what could be a $12-billion budget deficit. Administration officials also expect the budget to expand after next year as the economy recovers.

Union lobbyist Jeff Thompson called the tentative deal “great progress for our professionalism.

“It is something our leadership is pleased to recommend to our membership,” he said.

The contract must be ratified by the union membership and the Legislature. It is designed to ensure that guards’ pay keeps up with highway patrol officers’, who had reached a similar deal. The state has reached agreement with 15 of the state’s 21 employee unions, representing roughly 154,000 of the 176,000 employees covered by collective bargaining contracts.

While the overall value of the contract between the state and correctional officers could not be determined, the state assumes the 28,000 workers covered by the deal earn an average of $50,000 a year. If pay hikes in the later years amount to 20% to 30%, the contract could be worth between $280 million and $420 million, spread over five years. At the end of the contract, officers’ pay could average $60,000 to $65,00.

The prison guards union is among the most politically influential of all state employee unions. In 1998, the union directed more than $4 million in state campaign donations, including more than $2 million to help elect Gov. Gray Davis. Since Davis took office in 1999, the union has donated $55,000 to him and has held annual golf tournaments that have netted Davis another $356,000.

“In uncertain economic times, where we have a pledge of matching cost-of-living adjustments with other police agencies, there is security for our members,” Thompson said, noting that local police generally receive greater pay bumps than state employees. He predicted that the pay increases, coupled with more intense training, will help the state retain officers.

Thompson said the union was especially pleased by the administration’s agreement to fill vacancies, and not allow more than 5% of the positions to remain unfilled. Currently, vacancies at prisons are capped at 12%.

“Having coverage to watch our backs is critical,” Thompson said, adding that 3,000 assaults on correctional officers are reported annually. “The safety of [the] staff was uppermost.”