California’s Gov. Schwarzenegger declares war on workers

The governor has also proposed relaxing environmental regulations and the privatization of numerous public works programs. Since most public employees are unionized, privatization will amount to an attack on all unions and workers. Schwarzenegger’s plan will hurt unions to create new sources of profits for private interests—all at the expense of workers’ rights.

Schwarzenegger also has ordered all state agencies to cut their payrolls by 10 percent, guaranteeing layoffs for thousands of workers. (Los Angeles Times, Dec. 23, 2008)

The Professional Engineers in California Government, a union that represents 13,000 engineers, surveyors and others, along with the California Association of Professional Scientists, filed a lawsuit charging that Schwarzenegger’s plan illegally adjusts union salaries without labor negotiations. California’s largest state employee union, the Service Employees International Union, Local 1000, filed an unfair labor practice charge with the state Public Employee Relations board.

Workers are the backbone of all economic production. Our labor creates all social wealth, be it in the form of products, services or infrastructure, but in a capitalist economy, our needs are tossed aside so that the interests of the wealthy may be protected. These priorities are something that both capitalist parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, agree on: A Democratic counterproposal in the state legislature called for $550 million in “workforce cuts.”

The state of California wants workers to pick up the tab for a fiscal crisis they did nothing to create. If the capitalists are the ones who profit during economic booms, why should workers be the ones to pay during economic crises? The state’s budget gap of $42 billion should be closed by taxing the ultra-rich, transnational corporations such as banks and big oil, and taxes on stock market transactions.