Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley issued a ruling Thurs., Sept. 29 that appears to favor Local 1000 and other unions on the question of whether state employees working Lincoln's Birthday and Columbus Day should be compensated at holiday rates.

Local 1000 and unions representing scientists and psychiatric technicians sued the state after the Schwarzenegger administration refused to recognize the holidays even though both days are considered holidays under all three union contracts.

A special report from The Channel 1000 News on a preliminary court ruling on Lincoln's Birthday and Columbus Day holidays....

California's Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown leads Republican opponent Meg Whitman 52 to 39 percent among likely voters, according to a new Time/CNN/Opinion Research poll released Wednesday.

Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman debated Tuesday night on a variety of topics important to state employees.  Capitol Weekly political analyst John Howard joins...

The California Labor Federation has compiled a comprehensive fact-check on all of the misinformation Meg Whitman has been touting as fact over the last year. Using news sources, expert analysis and scholarly articles, they concisely refute 18 different lies that Whitman has said during the course of her campaign.

Our votes matterChannel 1000 hosts candidate forum Oct. 6Volunteering is just as important as votingVoting by mail is quick and easyKnow Your Rights: Your right...

As we elect our next boss, whom do you trust to be our governor? Our legislators?

Facing furloughs, pension cuts, threats of minimum wage and political attacks on many fronts, the phrase "politics matter" has never been more important to California state workers.

We're working to elect candidates who are on record supporting state workers and the services we provide. To help you at the ballot box this November, Channel 1000 will host an online candidate forum at 6:30 p.m. on October 6.

Just a few days after her off-the-cuff comment that "Fresno looks like Detroit," Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman apologized at a local fundraiser for the wording -- but not the message.

On a March morning outside his brick campaign headquarters, Jerry Brown pulled up 30 minutes late in a state-issued Crown Victoria as reporters waited to talk to him about his gubernatorial run.

Democrat Jerry Brown has moved into a narrow lead over Republican Meg Whitman in their fractious contest for governor, while his party colleague Barbara Boxer...

Back on that zany '60s TV series The Wild Wild West, the two agents discovered that the governor of California was an impostor, installed by an art collector out to steal state money in order to buy the Mona Lisa. Hey, there've certainly been worse reasons to pursue the governorship of the not so Golden State.

Since winning the Republican primary, Meg Whitman has banked $105,700 more in donations from her old contacts at Goldman Sachs, the powerful and controversial investment bank.

By Jack Chang

After months of negative advertising fueled by more than $100 million in campaign spending, the California governor's race is the closest it's been this near the election in two decades.

Six weeks from Nov. 2, Republican Meg Whitman and Democrat Jerry Brown are dead even, and voters are increasingly negative about both of them, according to a nonpartisan Field Poll released Wednesday.

Prop 20: Redistricting of Congressional Districts - OPPOSE

Removes elected representatives from process of establishing congressional districts and transfers that authority to recently-authorized 14-member redistricting commission comprised of Democrats, Republicans, and representatives of neither party.

Fiscal Impact: No significant net change in state redistricting costs.

The American worker has never been more dissatisfied with his job. Meanwhile, union membership continues its 50-year decline. Coincidence? Benjamin Radcliff thinks not.

He's a professor of political science at Notre Dame and the co-author of a new study about unions in 14 nations. His research shows that people who live in countries thick with union membership are a happier lot -- regardless of whether they're in a union or not. "There's a direct effect of being a member and sort of an indirect effect," Radcliff tells AOL News.

Members move into campaign mode: Attacks on state employees spur member activismDon't blame workers for state's financial mess: Research counters misleading attacks on state workersVoting...

For the past two years, there has been a steady drumbeat in the news media of politicians and others attacking state workers and blaming us for California's fiscal woes. In the September 4 Sacramento Bee article below, UC-Berkeley researchers Ken Jacobs and Stephanie Kalmin point out evidence showing that California state employees are not responsible for this mess and, in fact, we're more efficient than most states.

Attacks on state employees spur member activism

Local 1000 members have begun phone banking and walking precincts to help elect a new governor and legislators who will support state employees and the services we provide.

More than a thousand Local 1000 members have volunteered their time for the November general election.  We'll explain how you can get involved.We'll show...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may have a cameo role in a current film, but the real "Expendables" appear to be disabled Californians, the state employees who make disability decisions for the Social Security Administration and the federal dollars he is throwing away. Long before he was governor, bodybuilder Schwarzenegger lived by the motto "No pain, no gain." However, as California's chief executive, his policy of furloughing even those state employees whose salaries are federally funded has given rise to a new axiom: "Lots of pain for no gain."

A letter from Local 1000 President Yvonne Walker

Dear Local 1000 member:

To rebuild California, we need a governor with common sense, the ability to bring people together to solve problems and get things done, and a fundamental respect for the services provided by dedicated state employees.

Local 1000 endorsed candidates for November 2010

Join Receiver Clark Kelso and Chief Deputy Secretary Sharon Aungst for a discussion about the current and future activities of California Prison Health Care Services and the Division of Correctional Health Care Services.

While EDD modernization is long overdue, Local 1000 remains concerned that training programs for end users will fall short of what is needed, resulting in errors, delays in implementation, and a frustrated public that doesn't receive the services they deserve.

Hundreds of Local 1000 members are mobilizing up and down the state to elect lawmakers who are on record supporting state workers.  We'll tell...

Local 1000's victory blocking furloughs at SCIF - achieved in both Superior Court and the Court of Appeal - is being attacked by the governor again, and will now be heard by the California Supreme Court.

Any registered voter may vote using a vote-by-mail ballot instead of going to the polls on Election Day. California law also allows any registered voter to become a permanent vote-by-mail voter.

You can request a vote-by-mail ballot for one election or become a permanent vote-by-mail voter.

Get ready to have two governors at once. Jerry Brown's governorship is almost certain to begin before Arnold Schwarzenegger's ends. Don't believe it? Just ask them.

Who do we trust to be our next boss?If you're not registered... YOU CAN'T VOTE!We must do more than voteGive a few hoursGive a few...

Supreme Court justices are now considering various arguments for and against furloughs. But the biggest question: Did the Legislature inadvertently endorse the furloughs?We'll show...

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators are still struggling to agree on a budget deal long past the start of the July fiscal year. Whatever the outcome, it promises to be painful. How did we get into this mess?

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman claims spending under Jerry Brown skyrocketed when he was governor. But the numbers show a different story when employing calculations used by economists.

By now, you would think that California's budget follies might have elicited mild concern, perhaps a little alarm, maybe even a passing wave of panic. This is, after all, Day 74 of the impasse.

Jerry Brown finally began his advertising campaign this week in the race to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor of California and he's starting off in a good position. As I've been saying for the past few months, he's come through the period from the June primary to Labor Day weekend without billionaire Meg Whitman and her biggest-spending non-presidential campaign in American history getting the 12 to 15-point lead it had planned on. In fact, she doesn't have any lead at all.

Gov. Schwarzenegger's latest round of forced furloughs affects more than 150,000 state government employees. We see numerous stories about the furloughs, the state's budget problems and the politics of the Capitol, but we don't often see how the unpaid days off affect individual workers. Gov. Schwarzenegger has said that state workers haven't felt the level of economic pain that those in the private sector have felt. We thought we'd talk to a state worker about that. This is Angela Ramirez's story.

Whenever the subject of state and local governments' fiscal plight comes up here in the United States, conservatives engage in spittle-flecked denunciations of unions and their crazy pay packages.

Local 1000 attorneys say the seven justice panel of the California Supreme Court was well prepared as they questioned opposing legal teams on the...

California Public Employees' Retirement System CEO Ann Stausboll has sent letters to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders expressing the pension system's "significant concerns" about any attempt by the state to borrow $2 billion from CalPERS to help solve a $19 billion deficit.

Name the source of this quote from Wednesday's California Supreme Court hearing on the (il)legality of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's state worker furloughs:

"There's a whole raft of issues that have to be looked at before anyone could begin to think that this court's ruling would then require back pay. I think, the issue of the gift of public funds for workers who are paid for days that they didn't work has to be briefed."

The California Supreme Court appeared inclined Wednesday to uphold Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "furlough Friday" orders that have idled 200,000 state employees and shut down state agencies for three days a month.

Local 1000's legal team, attorneys for several other labor organizations and the governor completed oral arguments in the California Supreme Court on Sept. 8. All parties now wait for the panel of justices to render a decision that will impact all other furlough cases currently in the lower courts.

Our attorneys argued that Gov. Schwarzenegger had "a tool box of ways to achieve cost savings--including collective bargaining--instead of illegally implementing furloughs... Instead, the governor chose to unilaterally implement furloughs when the Legislature would not grant him the legal power to do so."

Local 1000's legal team, attorneys from several other labor organizations and the governor's legal team wrapped up oral arguments in front of the California...

We recently completed the first Joint Labor/Management Committee meeting for Professional Development as provided for in article 13.18 of the Unit 21 Memorandum of Understanding between the state and Local 1000. This committee met and developed the first Unit 21 survey to gather useful information relative to the professional development needs of Unit 21 employees at the Department of Education.

No movement from the state: both sides apart on key issuesLocal 1000 presses furlough suit to high court: our attorneys argue against illegal furloughsElecting our...

Local 1000 attorneys are set to present oral arguments Wednesday as the state Supreme Court begins hearings on state worker furloughs.  We'll tell you...

Public sector employees have unfairly become the focal point in an economic catastrophe not of their making. Even "Saturday Night Live" skewered public employees for a cheap laugh. But, while fans of late night television may chuckle, it's no joke that in California, the public sector is under a magnifying glass that ignores the big picture. But as Labor Day approaches, it is important to remember the important role that public sector employees play.

I'm a single mom and have worked for the state of California for 32 years. All my life, I've been self sufficient and careful to live within my means.

Both sides apart on key issues

After spending 12 days with Local 1000's latest contract proposal, the governor's negotiators returned to the table on Aug. 30 presenting the same proposal they submitted on Aug. 12.

"We're working to be part of the budget solution, but we won't settle for a contract at any cost--we must have a contract that provides stability for our members," said Local 1000 President Yvonne Walker.

If you're not registered--you can't vote!

Register on this page by clicking the "Register To Vote" button on the right.

Or pick up a voter registration form from your Local 1000 job steward, at your county elections office, library or U.S. Post Office.

After two years of pressure from Local 1000, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has agreed to restore pharmacy technicians to the eight-hour shift we enjoyed prior to 2008.

As we elect our next boss, whom do you trust to be our governor? Our legislators?

Politics matter more than ever: who do you trust to be governor?Volunteering: just as important as votingIf you're not registered, you can't vote!090110_update.pdf...