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Labor
Cuomo Says He’s Open To Contract Tweaks, But…
Sep 30th - 11:37 am
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is open to making changes in the labor agreement with the 56,000-member Public Employees Federation, but said this morning any alterations must be revenue-neutral.
Still, he hoped PEF members would reconsider and hold a new vote.
“I don’t have five-year job security,” Cuomo said. “Nobody gets, you don’t have a job no matter what for five years.”
PEF has called for the governor to return to the bargaining table to make changes to the contract. The governor’s team earlier in the week gave no indication it would be open to altering the existing deal.
Cuomo, in his first public comments since the white-collar state employee union voted down a five-year proposed contract, said in a radio interview on The Capitol Pressroom this morning that he was concerned about the “human toll” of the layoffs, which take effect in a matter of weeks.
“Of course I’m open to tweaks. We’re talking about 3,500 people,” he said.
The 2011-12 fiscal year spending plan includes about $450 million in workforce savings. The Civil Service Employees Association already approved a contract with similar terms. But the PEF contract actually includes more savings because their members tend to be better paid.
The PEF contract forged by his administration and the union’s leadership would have included three years of wage freezes, nine furlough days and an increase in health insurance costs. The contract was also unusually long for a labor agreement — five years.
The governor said there were two reasons why the contract was voted down.
“Either option ‘A’ is the members of the union didn’t think I was serious. They thought the administration was bluffing, that there wouldn’t be layoffs. If that’s what they thought, then they were mistaken. I think every action this administration has taken has shown we are serious. So if they thought we were bluffing, we’re going ahead with the layoffs, it wasn’t a bluff.”
Or, it was because some senior members of the union believed they would still receive step increases under the Triborough Amendment, while others would lose their jobs, Cuomo said.
“The second option is that people made a decision that they’d rather see other people laid off then they’d pay a little bit more on their health benefits,” he said.
He added: “People know who are the junior members, they know who are going to get laid off. You can have people who say, why should I get laid off? Lay off the other guy. It’s not in the spirt of the community, but you can see how that’s a pragmatic judgment.”
But Cuomo added that altering the provision, as some have called for, isn’t in the cards right now.
“I think it’s a political non-starter to try to revisit triborough,” he said. “We live in the real here.”
PEF To Cuomo: Let’s Negotiate
Sep 29th - 2:49 pm
Public Employees Federation Ken Brynien issued a new call today for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to return to the bargaining table as soon as possible.
Brynien says PEF, a union of mostly white-collar state workers, is prepared to present “new ideas” that can be accepted by the union’s rank-in-file and the administration.
The New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) is prepared to present to the state new ideas which we believe will lead to a tentative contract agreement that will meet everyone’s needs and our members will ratify.
Although the governor has said he will not change the state’s proposal we remain hopeful we can reach an agreement. The next few days will be critical as we try to preserve state services while meeting the savings the state requires.
The statement comes as the Cuomo administration has started to send out pink slips to nearly 3,500 state workers in the wake of the union rejecting a labor agreement that includes deep concessions. The layoffs take effect in about a month.
Cuomo needs to achieve $450 million in workforce savings in order to keep the budget in balance. Cuomo issued a short statement urging PEF members to reconsider their no votes.
Cuomo’s Director of State Operations Howard Glaser, issued a more pointed statement that blasted the PEF leadership for failing to explain the terms of the agreement.
The governor, so far, has given no indciation he would be willing to re-negotiate a new deal.
PEF Exec Board Member Accuses Cuomo Of ‘Religious Insensitivity’ (Updated)
Sep 29th - 12:45 pm
The relationship between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and leaders of the Public Employees Federation deteriorated still further yesterday, when one of the union’s executive board members accused the governor of making “retaliatory attacks” in the wake of Tuesday’s contract failure and acting with “vindictiveness,” “religious insensitivity,” and “disrespect.”
At issue for Beverly Bowen, of Region 9, is the fact that the layoff notices started going out yesterday as Jewish members of the union were preparing to celebrate Rosh Hashanah – one of the holiest days of Jewish year. Very observent Jews will be observing this holiday through Friday, and then will start their weekly observance of Shabbat.
In other words, it’s possible people who are just receiving word that they will be laid off won’t be in the office to get any guidance about how that’s going to work until next Monday.
UPDATE: Just to be clear, this email was not sent directly to me. It was written by Bowen and by her to fellow executive board members and PEF President Ken Brynien. A recipient forwarded it to me – apparently an important distinction that I have been asked to make here, since many state agencies have policies that forbid executive board members from communicating with the press.
“Regardless of the level of observance or the number of Jewish staff that will be effected by this, it was inappropriate and wrong to begin this process at a time when many are not going to be at work today, tomorrow or Friday due to religious observances,” Bowen wrote.
“For those unable to meet today, another meeting will be held tomorrow. Phone calls are going out along with the certified letters informing people of their selection on the list. The lack of respect that this continues to demonstrate to the humanity of our state worker’s is appalling and to me immoral. I could go on about the general unessecary vindictiveness of this entire action, but I’m preaching to the choir here I’m sure.”
“The union is not truly the people’s enemy and as we have said there are many diverse ways to improve the state economy before these drastic measures would be needed…This puts Jewish staff at a further demoralizing and disrespected level. I am NOT diminishing the huge impact that this is having on ALL employees who are targeted.”
“I do feel though that this rush to action/knee jerk reaction that is so typical of this administration could have waited until Monday to happen. Would this have happened on Christmas Eve? Maybe it will. It would be just as wrong then. Dare I wish everyone a sweet New Year? It is my fervrent prayer.”
I emailed Cuomo’s press office this morning to ask if the administration had given though to the fact that these layoffs coincide with the start of what Jews call the “Days of Awe” or the “High Holy Days” – a 10-day period of introspection and repentance that culminates with Yom Kippur. I did not receive a response.
The governor is definitely aware of the holiday. He released a statement on Wednesday wishes those New Yorkers who will be celebrating Rosh Hashanah a “healthy and prosperous” New Year.
Here’s The Layoff List
Sep 28th - 4:19 pm
Here is an agency-by-agency breakdown of where the pink slips are headed following the rejection of a labor agreement with the Public Employees Federation.
The biggest hit is being taken by Mental Health, which will lose 643 people. Corrections, too, will also be heavily impacted, losing 446 people. All together, the layoffs target about 3,496 positions in state government.
Brynien: ‘Our Members Have Spoken’
Sep 28th - 12:05 pm
Here’s Public Employees Federation President Ken Brynien breaking the news on the PEF contract rejection via Youtube.
Brynien urges Gov. Andrew Cuomo to return to the bargaining table and re-negotiate a new contract. Cuomo has asked PEF members to reconsider their no votes.
“We are trying to do our part governor. We are asking you to do yours,” Brynien said.
He also says the contract was too much for PEF’s membership to bear, adding that state workers didn’t cause New York’s fiscal mess.
“Our members did not cause the fiscal situation in this state and should not bare an undue burden in fixing it,” he said.
Cuomo Urges PEF To Reconsider Vote (Updated)
Sep 27th - 4:33 pm
Gov. Andrew Cuomo released a statement in response to the rejection of the labor agreement with the Public Employees Federation, urging them to reconsider.
PEF voting down the contract, which included a multi-year wage freeze and furloughs, by a wide margin, it was announced earlier.
Cuomo has threatened up to 3,500 layoffs if the contract was rejected. But his statement does not rattle the layoff sabre or suggest he is ready to fire off pink slips.
“The members of the Public Employee Federation (PEF) have made their decision on a contract that would have protected them against the state needing to lay off their workers in order to achieve the required workforce savings passed as part of this year’s budget.
In this economic reality, rising state workforce costs are unsustainable, as the members of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA), the state’s largest union, recognized when they overwhelmingly passed an identical contract. The Legislature passed a budget that made clear that reducing these costs would be achieved either through the collective bargaining process or through layoffs.
I urge them to reconsider.”
Update: State Director of Operations Howard Glaser released a more scathing statement, blasting PEF’s leadership. But he adds that layoffs could still be avoided by accepting the contract.
“Today’s vote represents a failure by PEF’s leadership to effectively communicate the benefits of the contract to its members as CSEA’s leadership did. Layoffs could still be avoided if PEF clearly articulates to its members the benefits of the contract as well as the consequences of rejection and schedules a revote. We spent months working with PEF’s leadership and reached an agreement. We now find out that they do not truly represent their membership.
Members of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA), who agreed to a layoff protection as part of their ratified collective bargaining agreement, will not be subject to the approximately 3,500 layoffs that will begin today.”
PEF Members Reject Contract
Sep 27th - 2:18 pm
The rank and file of the Public Employees Federation has rejected a tentative contract with the Cuomo administration, setting up the potential for thousands of state workers to begin as early as Wednesday.
The union of mostly 54,000 white-collar workers voted down the five-year contract, 19,629 to 16,906. While turnout was expected to be high, the overwhelming rejection of the contract by the state’s second largest union will likely surprise observers.
In a statement released just after 2 p.m., PEF President Ken Brynien said the workers felt they were being asked to sacrifice more than others.
Brynien added that he hoped the state and PEF can return to the bargaining table to negotiate a new contract. It remains unclear if that will happen, given the Cuomo administration’s tough talk as late as Monday.
“The decision to reject the tentative agreement was made by our rank-and-file members who clearly feel they are being asked to sacrifice more than others, particularly in light of the pending expiration of the state’s millionaire’s tax,” Brynien said. “We will ask the governor to direct his negotiators to immediately return to the bargaining table to work out an agreement which our members will ratify. We are calling on the governor to resist laying off thousands of our members as he has threatened and, instead, work with us to identify savings that would preserve the state’s depleted workforce and services, especially during this economic downturn and in light of the recent flooding.”
The agreement would have meant a three-year wage freeze, nine days of furloughs and an increase in health-insurance premiums.
The administration as late as Monday threatened up to 3,500 layoffs would be triggered by the contract rejection.
Cuomo officials were confident up until this morning that the contract would pass. The larger Civil Service Employees Association had agreed to a similar labor contract earlier this year.
But PEF was always seen as different. The PEF workers, who tend to have higher levels of education, were always more vocal about their dissatisfaction with the agreement forged by Cuomo and PEF’s leadership.
The accord with PEF was expected to actually save more than the CSEA deal: about $400 million over the five-year contract term.
The news of the contract’s rejection comes the same day (and will likely overshadow) the news that five major technology companies would invest $4.4 billion in the state’s economy, which Cuomo announced in Albany.
The approved 2011-12 state budget includes $450 million in workforce concessions.
Empire Center: New Yorkers Escaping To Warmer Climes
Sep 26th - 11:56 am
The New Yorkers leaving our state are more likely to head to south than anywhere else — where both the tax climate and economic climate are generally more hospitable.
But those numbers have slowed in the last five years after the economic recession battered Florida especially hard, the fiscally conservative Empire Center found in a report released today.
And in the last several years, migration to North Carolina has increased, outpacing Florida in 2009.
The Albany-based think-tank ran the numbers using data from the Internal Revenue Service. The numbers show the year-to-year movement of taxpayers and their dependents.
Meanwhile, the Empire Center also found that those with higher incomes are leaving the state and lower-income filers are moving to New York, with a net income loss of $37 billion from 2000 to 2009.
Incomes change over time, so this does not necessarily mean New York was $37 billion worse off at the end of
the period than it would have been if no moves had occurred during this period. At the very least, however, the average incomes of migrating taxpayers reflect New York’s ongoing loss of earning power – and, in many cases, job skills — to other states.
The migration of out New York — especially the jobs-starved upstate region — has confounded elected officials for years. A new sense of urgency seems to have sent in over the last several years as the state is set to lose two more House seats after it failed to grow at a faster rate than the rest of the nation.
The migration is generally blamed on the state’s poor business climate and reputation for having a high tax burden. But it also follows trends that are often seen in northeastern states — a loss of a manufacturing base and companies preferring to move their businesses to warmer temperatures where they can operate year-round.
PEF Surpasses CSEA’s Contract Vote
Sep 23rd - 3:47 pm
The PEF contract ballots will not be tallied until next Tuesday, but already more than 34,000 of them have been returned (as of close of business yesterday, according to union sources), which is about a 66 percent return rate.
Some 52,583 ballots were mailed asking members to approve or reject the five-year contract deal struck by PEF leaders and Gov. Andrew Cuomo in mid-July.
The tentative PEF contract, as you’ll recall, came after Cuomo hammered out an agreement with the union’s larger counterpart, CSEA. But both deals were pretty much the same, including nine days of unpaid furloughs in the first two years, zero percent raises for three years and health care concessions that the administration said will save close to $400 million over the contract term.
It’s possible that PEF will receive a 70 percent return rate for this contract as more ballots come in over the weekend and on Monday. That would be about on par with the last vote during the Spitzer administration when the former governor negotiation a pretty generous contract to compensate for the years of zeros that preceded his arrival in January 2007.
CapCon’s Rick Karlin, who has been tracking the union contract talks and subsequent votes very closely, reported earlier today that PEF leaders confirm the high turnout, although spokeswoman Darcy Wells would not divulge specific numbers.
Just under half of CSEA’s 66,000 members participated in that union’s contract vote, approving the deal despite some internal griping.
The contract opponents inside PEF have been more organized in their effort to see the agreement rejected, distribuing flyers and even starting a blog.
‘Contagion, Not Just A Movie’
Sep 21st - 2:31 pm
Advocates who are pushing NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn to bring a paid sick days bill up for a vote are employing a little bit of Hollywood magic to boost their cause – perhaps trying to scare her into acting?
The coalition Family Values @ Work produced a Web video based on the new hit flu epidemic movie “Contagion” in which a grocery cashier, a coffee barista, restaurant workers and a school bus driver discuss how they’ve all gone to work when they were feeling too ill to do so – and most likely infected co-workers and customers in the process – because they don’t have paid sick days and couldn’t risk losing their jobs.
Only 19 percent of low-wage workers, like those featured in the film, have paid sick days, according to Family Values @ Work. Three in four food service workers, three in five personal health care workers and three in four child care workers, all of whom have significant interaction with others, do not have paid sick days.
Smart approach. And scary, which I guess is the point. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go wash my hands.
(This was first reported in City Hall News’ “Heard Around Town” morning email blast; third item).
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