In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo insists he'll go ahead with a planned 3,500 layoffs next week if the state government''s second largest union, the Public Employees Federation (PEF), doesn't agree to a new contract that saves as much as the one rejected by PEF members in a Sept. 27 ratification.
In an important budgetary win for Cuomo, members of the larger Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) voted two months ago to ratify a similar five-year deal, including a three-year base pay freeze and an increase in health insurance contributions. The negative PEF vote (by a 19,629-16,906 margin, in an impressive 65 percent turnout) seems to have taken aback the governor and the union leadership, although it could not have been a complete surprise. PEF represents the state's better-paid lawyers, research scientists, engineers and the like, who faced bigger increases in their health insurance premiums than the lower paid, less educated CSEA members. And in contrast to CSEA, there was an organized opposition movement in PEF.
In an important budgetary win for Cuomo, members of the larger Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) voted two months ago to ratify a similar five-year deal, including a three-year base pay freeze and an increase in health insurance contributions. The negative PEF vote (by a 19,629-16,906 margin, in an impressive 65 percent turnout) seems to have taken aback the governor and the union leadership, although it could not have been a complete surprise. PEF represents the state's better-paid lawyers, research scientists, engineers and the like, who faced bigger increases in their health insurance premiums than the lower paid, less educated CSEA members. And in contrast to CSEA, there was an organized opposition movement in PEF.
As I pointed out in this New York Post op-ed, thanks to New York's unique Triborough amendment,
a sizable number of PEF members -- those still moving up the seniority
ladder in their civil service pay grades -- knew they would continue to
receive pay increases even if they go indefinitely without a contract to
replace the one that expired March 31. Moreover, Triborough ensures
they can stand pat and accept the inevitable freeze in base pay without
giving up payless furlough days or chipping in more for health
insurance.
As one union member told a labor publication last month, "We have the Triborough Amendment -- why do this to yourself?"
As one union member told a labor publication last month, "We have the Triborough Amendment -- why do this to yourself?"
Why, indeed?
What
remains very unclear is how Cuomo and the union can craft a different
deal that still delivers the savings he was counting on of roughly $400 million over the contract term. And if they do
shape such a deal, why would union members be any more likely to vote
for it now -- when they have a better idea of who is not likely to be losing their jobs?
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