Organized labor in the Monterey Bay area is a potent force -- powerful enough apparently to intimidate Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from visiting Salinas. The Governor was planning an appearance in Salinas on Wednesday, May 12, to commemorate the opening of a new California Highway Patrol facility, but when a sizable protest organized against him was publicized, he canceled out at the last minute on Tuesday evening. Representatives from Schwarzenegger's office deny that he had planned on being at the Salinas ceremony, but insiders confirm that the city was preparing for the governor's visit.

Various labor groups have been organizing against Schwarzenegger throughout the state. The first was the California Nurses Association, who have protested his ban on safe nurse-to-patient ratio mandates in medical facilities throughout the state. The California Teacher's Association and California Federation of Teachers have worked in solidarity opposing Schwarzenegger's theft of two billion dollars from last year's education budget, which has yet to be returned. Meanwhile, schools throughout the state are suffering from budget shortfalls. Other labor groups, including state and school employees and service workers, have fought the privatization of the state's retirement system, cutbacks to Worker's Compensation and the Governor's proposed anti-Proposition 98 special election slated for November.

Despite the governor's absence, the demonstration on Wednesday brought record numbers of union supporters out into the streets of Salinas, according to Monterey Bay Central Labor Council's Executive Director, Paul Johnston. He estimated that there were 100 - 200 representing a wide variety of unions in the morning and another several hundred of school employees who arrived in the afternoon. "Outside of farm worker demonstrations, this is probably one of the biggest in the last 50 years," he observed.