Recall effort begins in California

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who won election in the first recall of a California governor, has now become a target for removal himself.

The state’s well-financed prison guards union, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, is initiating a recall effort against Schwarzenegger, a union spokesman said Monday. The governor and the union have been at odds for years; they have been unable to agree to a new contract for the guards, whose labor agreement expired in 2006.

The governor last fall invoked a rare provision of state law allowing him to unilaterally impose new working conditions on the union in the absence of a deal.

Lance Corcoran, a spokesman for the union, said Monday that the contract dispute had nothing to do with the recall effort.

“This is a governor that has done absolutely nothing,” Corcoran said in an interview.

Schwarzenegger, reacting later, linked the recall effort directly to the contract. He said he would negotiate with the union but would not give in to its demands for higher salaries and changes in working conditions such as sick leave and job assignments.