Government Employee Union Brags How Donations Scored Sweetheart Contract

From Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times:

Last week, I found myself cruising the website of the California prison guards union. I was curious about whether the $7 million the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. spent on last year’s elections — including $2 million on Jerry Brown’s governor’s race alone — might have had something to do with the contract the union just scored.

And right there at ccpoa.org, I saw a video called “Winners.” “We should be able to develop a good contract with this governor,” says union lobbyist Craig Brown, “and we should have no trouble getting it ratified.”

The narrator then steps in:

“Of the 107 candidates endorsed by CCPOA this election, 104 were victorious.”

And that new contract? As my colleague Jack Dolan reported, it has lots of goodies.

Would you like eight weeks of time off in a year?

Become a prison guard.

The contract also lifted the cap on unused vacation days guards can cash in when they retire — and use to sweeten the amount of their pensions. The current cost of that accumulated time, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, is $600 million.