Prison Guards Challenge Schwarzenegger
SACRAMENTO – A national newsmagazine cover last week showed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger balancing a globe on a fingertip to symbolize leadership on global warming, but a powerful prison guard union has him in a hotter place.
With a face painted a lurid red and horns sprouting from his forehead, Schwarzenegger is depicted on a big mobile billboard parked at union headquarters that says: “The devil's in the details.” Schwarzenegger said last month he thought legislative leaders were only a couple of weeks away from a $10 billion bond deal to relieve prison overcrowding and avoid a court-ordered early release of inmates.
Many believe Schwarzenegger first may have to give a new labor contract to the prison guards, who have battled him with lawsuits and arbitration, rejected an offer that could give them an 18 percent raise over four years, and formed coalitions to push their own proposals on overcrowding. ED MENDEL in The San Diego Union Tribune