SACRAMENTO — A year after he was hired to straighten out the state's dysfunctional prison system, California Corrections Secretary Roderick Q. Hickman is weathering resistance from one source above all others: the labor union that represented him for 20 years.
When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Hickman, a lifelong prison guard and manager, correctional officers rejoiced that, finally, one of their own would be running the show. At the same time, skeptics questioned whether he would stand up to the union, a formidable force inside the prisons and beyond.
In a reversal of expectations, it is the union -- the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. -- that is most displeased with Hickman thus far. In speeches, legislative hearings, media interviews and private Capitol meetings, its leaders routinely bash the secretary as, in the words of President Mike Jimenez, "an embarrassment."
The attacks represent a new style of aggressiveness on the part of the union as it duels with prison managers over the rights and benefits of its 31,000 members. Once a welcome presence in the inner circle of corrections leadership, union officials now say they are increasingly left out of decisions that affect their rank and file.
"There's a change in the way the Department of Corrections and the union communicate, a chill on our conversation," said union Executive Vice President Lance Corcoran. "The management team is trying to distance themselves from the stakeholders who deliver the message on the front lines."
A spokesman for Schwarzenegger said the governor is aware of the union's criticism and proud of Hickman "for showing courage and moving forward, especially given this much abuse."
"The governor has told him, 'If the union wasn't this upset at you, you wouldn't be doing the job right,' " added Rob Stutzman, the governor's communications director.
Critics of the union hope the feud portends a waning of its influence on corrections policy and the day-to-day running of prisons. In a January report, a federal court investigator charged that the union's reach was so pervasive that it had successfully pressured a former corrections director to kill a perjury investigation of two guards, and then to conspire with others to conceal his actions.
"I've never seen the union lash out like this," said Donald Specter of the Prison Law Office, a group that tracks conditions in California prisons. "I think it's symptomatic of an organization being pushed to a place where they don't want to go."
