| This is devastating.
Last night, news broke that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will sign an Executive Order on Monday slashing the wages of over 200,000 state employees to the bare minimum.
Not California's minimum wage of $8 per hour. The federal minimum wage of $6.55. Six dollars and fifty-five cents an hour.
Imagine trying to pay your bills on $6.55 an hour. Now imagine what will happen to thousands of vital service workers forced to live on poverty-level wages. A nauseating irony: many state employees may need to seek aid from the very state services that employ them.
As Karyn, a state employee, said in the comments to the Sacramento Bee story that broke the story statewide last night:
"$6.55 an hour only amounts to $1,048 per month. After my rent, that would leave only $218 left. How many of you can live on that? Hardly, am I a rich state employee. As a clerical, I am usually broke by the 10th of the month, and the other 3 weeks of the month I am barely getting by."
This is absolutely outrageous. And the only way we can stop Arnold is by raising our voices as loud as possible in protest before Monday morning. Please sign our "Stop Arnold" petition to Governor Schwarzenegger. On Monday morning, we'll deliver thousands of your signatures to the Governor's office:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/StopArnold
The Governor's plan, rather than fixing California's massive $15 billion budget deficit, will instead make our budget crisis worse while delivering a serious blow to our struggling economy. As the recession deepens, gas prices skyrocket, stores close, and home foreclosures surge, the governor's wage cuts will force many working families over the financial edge.
To add insult to injury, the Governor is slashing workers' wages instead of taking leadership to close the "Yacht Tax" loophole that Arianna Huffington and the Courage Campaign told you about a few months ago.
That's right. While his rich friends get off tax-free on yacht and private jet purchases, Arnold is making devastating cuts that endanger the livelihoods of state workers and all of us who depend on them.
We've got to stop the Governor before it's too late. If enough Californians speak out, Arnold may halt these devastating wage cuts before August 1. Please watch our "Yacht Party" TV ad and then sign our "Stop Arnold" petition to Governor Schwarzenegger before we deliver thousands of your signatures at 9 a.m. Monday morning:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/StopArnold
The Governor is claiming that he will pay state workers retroactively for wages lost during this budget crisis. But that won't pay their rent or prevent their home from being foreclosed upon before a state budget is eventually passed.
Instead of closing the yacht tax and so many other loopholes that favor the rich, Arnold is borrowing on the backs of state workers. He is claiming there is not enough cash in the state coffers to pay them, an assertion strongly refuted by Controller John Chiang.
If you think these wage cuts are unconscionable, please forward this message to your friends in California. The more signatures we collect before Tuesday, the more pressure we can put on Arnold.
Thank you for stepping up to stop Arnold and the California Republican Yacht Party from sinking our state.
Rick Jacobs
Chair
P.S. Believe it or not, John McCain is charging $100,000 per person to enjoy a lavish dinner with his Yacht Party cronies in San Francisco on Monday. Meanwhile, Governor Schwarzenegger -- who endorsed McCain and his regressive economic policies -- is preparing to push thousands of state employees to the brink of financial disaster.
Enough is enough. Please sign our "Stop Arnold" petition before Monday at 9 a.m.:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/StopArnold |
