Governor Schwarzenegger is ordering layoffs and pay cuts for state workers to help ease California's cash crunch. The Governor issued an Executive Order Thursday. It calls for workers to be furloughed two days per month, starting in February and ending in June of 2010. Yvonne Walker is with SEIU, the union that represents nearly 100,000 state workers. She says that amounts to a pay cut of ten percent.
Walker: It would be drastic and devastating. When you look at somebody who only makes 25,000 a year, that's a significant cut.
SEIU is planning to file a legal action with the Public Employment Relations Board. They claim the Governor's order amounts to an unfair labor practice. The Governor's also ordering that managers and non-union employees take a straight pay cut of ten percent. In addition, he's ordering that twenty percent of state workers - those with the least seniority - be put on notice that they could be laid off. The State Controller says California could run out of cash by February.
