The union representing California's prison guards said Monday it was starting a recall attempt against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who took office after the previous governor was recalled in 2003.
Mike Jimenez, president of the 30,000-member California Correctional Peace Officers Association, said Schwarzenegger has been a failure since replacing recalled Gov. Gray Davis.
He said the union was seeking a recall vote because its members have gone two years without a new labor contract and because Schwarzenegger didn't exempt its members from an executive order intended to cut pay for tens of thousands of state employees as a way to deal with the state's budget crisis.
This year's record-long budget impasse, with lawmakers at odds over how to close a $15.2 billion deficit, only adds to the union's disillusion over Schwarzenegger, Jimenez said.
The union must collect the signatures of more than a million registered voters to qualify the measure, according to the California Secretary of State's office
Union spokesman Lance Corcoran said a recall measure would likely end up on a special-election ballot next year rather than on the upcoming November ballot.
If the issue makes a special election ballot, a simple majority vote is needed for the recall to succeed.
Schwarzenegger's executive order to reduce pay for some 175,000 state workers to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour has not taken effect because the state controller has refused to comply.
The governor said the recall attempt is just a tactic to increase wages for the union beyond what the state can afford. He vowed to not capitulate.