AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes sat down with me this afternoon for a “Capital Tonight” interview and insisted the labor movement will present a united front if AG Andrew Cuomo goes to war with the public employee unions next year, despite the fact that the federation endorsed his gubernatorial bid.

Hughes played down Cuomo’s effort to make a distinction between public and private unions, playing up his support of the trades, for example, while proposing a wage freeze, property tax cap and other policy initiatives that are not supported by the publics.

The AFL-CIO, as you’ll recall, was not united in its support of Cuomo when members met for their endorsement convention in Colonie last month.

NYSUT stayed on the sidelines, but also didn’t actively oppose the AG – a pragmatic approach, since it would have been very difficult, if not impossible, for Cuomo to get the AFL endorsement had NYSUT voted “no”.

Hughes said labor has experience dealing with governors who go on the warpath during tough economic times. (His interview with me will air in full at 8 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. tonight).

“We’ve been through this a lot with different governors over the years,” Hughes said. “All of the governors that were governor when there was an economic downturn make these pronouncements. We’ve been with them through these things…and we know how to get through it, we’ve done it before.”

“From the city fiscal crisis in the 70s, through the previous governor Cuomo, Mario Cuomo’s problems in the late 80s, to George Pataki’s problems twice with downturns in the stock markets and then the 9/11 collapse. We’ve seen this happen. We know how to be helpful. We know how to get in it, and we we know how to preserve benefits, rights of working men and women, whether they’re public or private sector.”

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