2010 CAPS Bargaining
Frequently Asked Questions

 

The CAPS Bargaining Team is meeting again with the Department of Personnel Administration.  Bargaining proposals have been exchanged.  Several more meetings are scheduled during June.  CAPS hopes to reach agreement with DPA before July 1, but ONLY if certain conditions are met.  These conditions include a guarantee of substantial salary growth during the course of the labor agreement and an end to mandatory unpaid furloughs. Here are questions frequently asked by state scientists, and the corresponding answers from CAPS.  Topics:  

 

Question:  Why does there continue to be such bad news from Sacramento? 

Answer:  Two reasons.  First, the state’s budget continues to be in a deep financial hole, $19.1 billion this year.  Second, the Governor has made state employees a special target in dealing with the deficit.  He has done this by imposing unpaid furloughs, railing against the defined benefit retirement plan and cutting deals with state lawmakers to unilaterally eliminate holidays, reduce overtime benefits, etc.  And he’s at it again.  His bargaining proposal to CAPS and other unions would permanently reduce salary and benefits.  He proposes a salary increase in two years that doesn’t restore the cuts.  Concurrently, he is pursuing a very different tract with state law makers.  His May budget revision proposes cuts to state employee pay and benefits that are different and worse than the proposal he has made to CAPS. 

Question:  Why trade proposals with a Governor who can’t be trusted?  

Answer:  CAPS DOES believe in the collective bargaining process.  ANY agreement CAPS reaches with this governor will be in writing, legally enforceable, and ratified by the CAPS membership and the state legislature before it becomes effective.   

Question:  Who negotiates for CAPS? 

Answer:  The CAPS Bargaining Team.  It consists of six rank-and-file CAPS leaders.  Professional staff  help guide and articulate positions for the Team.  Thus, volunteer state scientists make all decisions for CAPS, and hired professional negotiators deliver those decisions to the state.   

Question: What is required for a new MOU to become effective? 

Answer:  Any tentative agreement reached by CAPS in bargaining must be ratified both by the state legislature and the CAPS membership on a majority vote.  The CAPS Team will reach tentative agreement with the state ONLY if it believes the agreement would pass muster with the CAPS membership by a comfortable margin.  

Question:  Will the legislature make concessions to the governor on state employee pay and benefits absent a new MOU? 

Answer:  It is very possible, even likely. Without a collective bargaining agreement, state scientists are at the mercy of either the governor (unpaid furloughs), or the governor in combination with the legislature (pay, benefits, retirement).  The Governor has said recently and publicly there will be no deal on a state budget without changes to retirement, including a salary reduction, regardless of collective bargaining.  Together, they have already scaled back employee benefits in an end-run of collective bargaining, and they can do it again.  To prevent this, CAPS is making a good faith effort to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with this governor.  Such an agreement could include temporary short term cuts, but it must have long-term, substantial salary growth--salary equity! 

Question:  Are layoffs a possibility? 

Answer:  In extreme budget times like these, they always are.  The decision to hire and lay off employees is exclusively with the Governor.  So far, he has not laid off state scientists, nor does he appear to have the inclination to begin doing so.  This does seem contradictory in light of his stated need to realize large and immediate savings for the state’s General fund, and the fact that state departments continue to hire employees to General fund positions.   

Question:  What’s the likelihood of getting paid minimum wage? 

Answer:  Increasingly likely.  Governor Schwarzenegger has aggressively pushed the courts for authority to pay minimum wage absent a timely state budget.  There probably won’t be a state budget adopted by July 1.  In that event, his representatives have told CAPS that he will order State Controller John Chiang to issue minimum wage payments for the July pay period. We know controller Chang is opposed to minimum payments, but under the law, he may have no choice.  Minimum wage means $7.25 an hour for rank-and file-employees and $455 per week for supervisors and managers.  We have urged all state scientists to plan for this contingency as best they can.  We must rely on the Governor and the Controller to inform state scientists about the details of planned minimum wage payments, including which deductions will get paid, and which won’t.  For many employees, there may not be sufficient net funds available to fund mandatory and permissive deductions. 

Question:  Will CAPS deduct dues and fees during any month that minimum wage payments are made?  

Answer:  No.  CAPS will defer deduction of dues and fees until state scientists are made whole by the state controller.  At that time, dues and fees will be paid for months they were being deferred.   

Question:  If CAPS isn’t able to reach agreement in bargaining, do we just wait things out with no change until the next governor takes office? 

Answer:  Not if Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has his way.  He is demanding that the legislature include pension changes as part of any final budget deal--including doubling state employees’ retirement contribution to CalPERS.  He said he will hold up a budget deal indefinitely unless these elements are included in it.