California state union leader Yvonne Walker has a sales job on her hands

The toughest sales job in California over the next few weeks belongs to a former Marine who will have to explain to tens of thousands of state workers why they should accept yet another pay cut.

Eventually it will fall to SEIU Local 1000 President Yvonne Walker to persuade the voting members of the 93,000-employee union to swallow a 5 percent reduction in their wages to help balance California's wobbly budget.

The union is still under contract for another year. The members have already endured furloughs. And Gov. Jerry Brown, the labor-friendly Democrat they helped elect, proposed the cut.

The complexity of Walker's position was on full display at a recent webcast town hall with Service Employees International Union members.

"Every year there's going to be a deficit," said one long-time state worker who said he is at the top of his job's pay range. "So we're bargaining what? Cuts in pay or layoffs. So what year are we going to say, no more cuts in pay, we're going to have to do layoffs?"

Walker responded, "Short-term, we're going to have to take a cut. … One of the solutions is that we've got to go out and work for revenue."

Another complained that he worked a union phone bank in the governor's race because "Gov. Brown wasn't going to take our money" with furloughs the way former GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger did.

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http://www.sacbee.com/2012/06/21/4579110/collabnet-to-host-free-webinar.html