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Thursday, April 2, 2009
 The State Worker: Small unit considers break from SEIUPublished: Thursday, Apr. 2, 2009 - 12:00 am
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Labor's version of "Divorce Court" logs a rare episode this week as a small group of state workers decides whether to dump California's biggest public employee union. The state sent ballots Wednesday to about 600 librarians and educational consultants that make up tiny Bargaining Unit 21. They will decide whether to stick with Service Employees International Union Local 1000, switch to a newly formed union or go with no representation at all. (State government deals with 21 union-represented bargaining units when negotiating contracts. SEIU now represents nine, including Bargaining Unit 21.) The Association of Education Consultants and Librarians, which hopes to take over for SEIU, pushed for the vote. "We'll never get what we can unless we get out," said Monte Blair, a state worker who founded the new union. But Terry Lawhead, chairwoman of Bargaining Unit 21, said the vote is a product of "misplaced frustration." True,the union recently agreed to a contract containing several concessions, including one monthly furlough day and changes to overtime pay. Still, the union says, it's better than the two-day-per-month furlough mandated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. It's planning to fight the state's interpretation of some of the overtime changes. And other unions in contract talks say the administration isn't offering a SEIU-type deal. The librarians and educational consultants are a drop in the pool of 95,000 state workers SEIU represents. Blair and his faction think SEIU, at best, has ignored their tiny band. The union's size, they say, hurts them because other SEIU bargaining units hold them back. Nonsense, Lawhead said: "Every bargaining unit negotiates its own contract." State workers rarely split to form their own unions. State scientists did it 25 years ago, and no one has done it since. We'll know soon whether the divorce talk this time is real. The state will tally the votes on April 30. In other news, Assemblyman Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, introduced a resolution Tuesday that encourages Congress to repeal two rules in Social Security law. Those rules, the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset, stop second-career civil service workers from collecting Social Security when they retire or when a spouse dies. Assembly Joint Resolution 10 would support Rep. Howard Berman, D-North Hollywood, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who have introduced legislation to eliminate the public servant penalty. Call The Bee's Jon Ortiz, (916) 321-1043. Read his blog, The State Worker, at sacbee.com/blogs.
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