Unions Protest Governor's Proposals (nurses fight cuts)

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-unions19jan19.story
Unions Protest Governor's Proposals
As nurses gather in the Capitol, labor leaders say it's the start of a fight to keep pay and benefits.
By Robert Salladay
Times Staff Writer

January 19, 2005

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger faced one of the biggest protests of his political career Tuesday, when about 1,500 nurses marched on the Capitol behind black coffins and a New Orleans jazz band playing a death march.

They were upset about Schwarzenegger's emergency edict cutting back on the number of nurses required by law in hospitals and emergency rooms. The governor has said a nursing shortage required him to suspend the law, but the action has mobilized thousands against him.

Union leaders say Tuesday's protest was just the start of a large and coordinated movement against the governor. Schwarzenegger has made organized labor across the state — including road construction crews, hospital nurses, public school teachers and welfare bureaucrats — his biggest budget-cutting targets this year.

Under several Schwarzenegger proposals, private and public employee unions would face less pay, fewer vacation days, longer hours and bigger pension costs. Particularly with his plan to turn California's public pension system into a 401(k) plan fueled by employee contributions, he has unleashed one of the most aggressive campaigns targeting unions since the administration of former Gov. Pete Wilson.

Unions consider Schwarzenegger their biggest enemy and have begun organizing for an expensive fight. Both sides — union leaders and Schwarzenegger's political allies — are expected to spend tens of millions of dollars to run a series of TV ads in the months ahead pitching their agendas or defending themselves. Many of the governor's proposals must be put before voters, most likely in a special election this fall.

"A year ago, the governor acknowledged that public employees do good work," said J.J. Jelincic, president of the California State Employees Assn. "Now he has adopted what I think has to be a right-wing ideological position that public employees are no good."<snip>