Negotiators for the California Association of Professional Scientists have pulled back the counterproposal that they had offered on June 3.
The reason for the union's decision: Threat of minimum wage being imposed on state workers and public comments by the governor about pensions and budget changes that, a union source close to the situation tells us, have undermined bargaining in CAPS' view.
The source, who did not want to be named discussing sensitive negotiations, cited the following changes:
The union had offered to accept two days of unpaid leave per month; now it will only support voluntary leave. And the union will keep up its court fight over Schwarzenegger's furlough policy.
CAPS had said it wouldn't oppose legislation to alter pension formulas for newly hired state workers. Now, unless the governor bargains those changes, CAPS will oppose them.
And the union is continuing to press for a deal that includes 5 percent annual pay increases over four years of a 5-year MOU.
The union made its counteroffer the same day that President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg criticized the Schwarzenegger administration for using 11th-hour arm-twisting bargaining tactics to get unions to agree they won't oppose legislation to reduce pension benefits for new hires. Steinberg didn't think that was appropriate.
Schwarzenegger shot back an e-mail on June 4 that said, indeed, he is talking about pensions with the unions but that some of his agenda, changes to the budget process and pensions in particular, requires legislation apart from labor contracts.
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