State Workers, Long Resistant, Accept Cuts in Pension Benefits

Some public-sector unions, trying to avoid furloughs and layoffs, are accepting less-generous pension benefits for current workers and retirees, often for the first time in years.

In California, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he wouldn't sign a budget without a pension-fund overhaul, his office on Monday announced tentative contract agreements with two unions, following two years of wrangling over benefit cuts. Earlier this month, four unions agreed to similar tentative contracts. The agreements would potentially curtail benefits to 37,000 workers.

Unions and workers' associations in states such as Vermont, Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado and Wyoming also have recently supported rollbacks ...

The Schwarzenegger administration today ordered State Controller John Chiang to reduce state worker pay for July to the federal minimum allowed by law -- $7.25 an hour for most state workers.

The instructions from the Department of Personnel Administration exclude roughly 37,000 state workers in six bargaining units that recently came to tentative labor agreements with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Some employees, such as doctors and lawyers, would get no pay because federal exempts them from any minimum wage requirement. Managers, supervisors and others who don't get paid for working more than 40 hours per week would receive $455 per week until a budget deal got done.