While the CCPOA isn’t always our favorite union, it is good to see Arnold take one on the jaw for these furloughs. Josh Richman has the story:
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association had argued that guards have been denied permission to take furlough credit days off, and that there’s no feasible way for all the guards to take all their accumulated time before it expires.
And even if they could eventually get the time off, they’re meanwhile having three days’ pay deducted from each paycheck without a proportionate reduction in hours worked, the union argued.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch ordered the state Thursday to rescind parts of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2008 and 2009 executive orders imposing the furloughs and to pay the guards for all hours worked for which furlough credits haven’t yet been used. (Oakland Tribune)
While the prison guards aren’t the only ones with strange furlough patterns, theirs was really, really messed up. They couldn’t actually get the time off, and were just expected to work for free. And then the time-off credit expires? That’s just theft.
So, I’m not sure how much this case carries over to other furlough situations, but, hey, at least it is a set back for this ridiculous furlough scheme.
we cut budget deals so that undereducated, unskilled, and expendable prison guards make 80k + while we cut teachers and increase classroom size, not to mention HUGE budget cuts for universities.
Meanwhile, if we’re going to privatize prisons, let’s destroy the CCPOA by hiring private prison guards for 20-30k, and hire more of them. that way, more folks get jobs, which is needed in this economy, more than a bloated prison budget that goes to overtime pay and corrupt ‘hazard’ pay.
No…CCPOA is not our ‘favorite’ union.