The State Worker has received a copy of a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger from Yvonne Walker, president of Service Employees International Union Local 1000.
These two paragraphs capture the essence of the letter:
Governor, we've sacrificed. And we've now reached our limit. We cannot and will not allow you to use us as pawns in your political power game.
When we negotiated one furlough day monthly, a wage freeze, and other cost saving changes, we were standing up for state services. While we will continue to battle for quality public services, we are now standing up for ourselves as well. We will fight for a common sense budget that combines cuts and revenues to maintain our quality of life, both now and for generations to come.
Click here to read the letter.
Walker doesn't spell out what "fight" means, but the letter is consistent with her Thursday online address to members, which we reported in this blog post.
But that address, like the letter, stopped short of announcing a formal strike polling of members. That could come as early as Monday, union sources now tell us, if Local 1000 leaders in the field signal that they believe that the rank-and-file is angry enough to vote for a walkout.
You can view the text of the speech by clicking here.
Local 1000 spokesman Jim Zamora provided that text after he confirmed the authenticity of Walker's letter to Schwarzenegger.
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