LAS VEGAS — A few steps from the slot machines and blackjack tables here, Mike Jimenez asked for a final show of support from the men and women who had just placed their bets on him to fight on as leader of California's once feared, still proud prison guards union.
After a series of union defeats and a contentious campaign, the combative Jimenez, 47, was easily reelected as president last week and promised he would succeed in a drive to recall Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the group's most formidable adversary.
"We will stand tall again in the Capitol," Jimenez declared, his face enlarged on television screens high above hundreds of members' heads. "I need your help here today to send a message loud enough that it can be heard in Sacramento. . . . If this governor makes us go to the mat, are we ready to go to the mat and to kick his ass, and I need you all together to say it one time. One, two, three!"
"Hell yes!" some yelled.
The decision to stay on a course of confrontation displayed the quandary facing the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. The union's 30,000 guards and parole officers have been accustomed to attacking their enemies and winning, using millions in dues-funded campaign contributions, but their approach and resolve have been tested by Schwarzenegger.
The union had gained the most rapid pay increases of any state workers in recent years, with annual salaries up to $73,000 plus overtime that routinely vaults them into six figures. After more than two years without a contract, the guards have watched helplessly as the governor has taken away treasured work rules they had won. Last year, Schwarzenegger rescinded their rights to call in sick without question and to veto many operational decisions inside prisons, which he has characterized as piggish and abusive. After the union launched the recall two weeks ago, the Republican governor, saying he would not "get intimidated by those guys," sent his political team out to cast the move as a special-interest power play.
In his formal response filed with the state last week, Schwarzenegger quoted U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough), a former state senator, as saying that the officers "telegraph loud and clear: 'If you cross us, we'll take you out.' "
"The bosses want the same sweetheart deal Gov. [Gray] Davis gave them after $3 million in campaign contributions," wrote Schwarzenegger, who does not take money from the guards. "It's offensive that one special interest is using a recall to get more money."
