ShareThisAs California's massive prison and parole department begins a historic downsizing to cut costs and comply with court orders, it's getting a hand from organized labor.
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association and five other unions have signed contract amendments for Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation employees that set aside some job protections, drastically cut employees' state-paid moving allowances and aim to reduce prison officer overtime costs.
The state estimates the deals will save $13 million in this fiscal year, compared with the traditional layoff process.
In exchange, unions hope fewer workers will lose their jobs as the department shifts some of its responsibilities to local government. That process started Oct. 1, aiming to cut the state's prison and parole costs over several years.
By September, the state's 63,000-employee prison and parole agency had issued more than 2,100 warning notices, the first wave of several to come.
Although the state and the unions say the agreements are a plus for both sides, some employees are unhappy that they may have to uproot.
California Correctional Peace Officers Association spokesman JeVaughn Baker said the concessions aren't ideal and acknowledged that some union members are upset at the prospect of moving to remote facilities around the state.
"However, we also understand that CDCR is downsizing," Baker said, "and it is better for our members to relocate than to be jobless in this struggling economy."
Ron Yank, who heads Gov. Jerry Brown's Department of Personnel Administration, said the agreements are a "win-win" for the government and its employees.
"We -- the state -- will save millions of dollars by moving people from places we don't need them to places where we're understaffed," Yank said. "The employees get certainty in uncertain economic times."
Potentially thousands of jobs are in play. Lawmakers, in response to court orders to reduce the prison population and California's budget woes, signed off this year on a realignment plan that shifts some state penal and parole responsibilities to local governments.
California houses 144,000 inmates in its 33 adult institutions, but the corrections department estimates it will shed 20,000 of those individuals by next summer and another 14,000 by July 2013.
The department also is shifting its adult parole responsibilities to local governments, making obsolete approximately 900 state parole agent and parole support staff jobs.
"The unions had no choice but to play ball," said Joshua Page, a University of Minnesota sociology professor who has studied the history of California's penal system. "It came down to keeping benefits and protections or keeping jobs."
Corrections officials will monitor the prison population, and as it shrinks, the department will issue more notices that employees need to transfer or risk layoff.
"This will be done in waves," said Ken Murch, chief negotiator and lobbyist for the California Association of Psychiatric Technicians, which represents 7,000 state workers. "In the end, there may be no alternative but to lay people off."
Reach Jon Ortiz at jortiz(at)sacbee.com. For more stories visit scrippsnews.com
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