Our Version of Wisconsin
State Contract Terms Part of Anti-Worker Offensive
By ANDREW D. COATES, MD

[The following op-ed appeared November 1, 2011 in The
Chief-Leader, a New York City-based weekly civil service
newspaper since 1897 that focuses on municipal government
and its labor unions while also covering issues affecting
New York State and Federal employees.]

Submitted to Portside by the Author

A bid to kettle New York's public-employee unions crowns
Andrew Cuomo's larger program of austerity.

A state-by-state anti-public-employee-union offensive this
year has been topped infamously by union-busting
legislation in Wisconsin and Ohio. Here in New York, the
same task requires some sophistication.

Governor Cuomo thinks he has the juice. In strong-arm
negotiations he landed PEF just where he wanted: damned if
we do and damned if we don't. His layoff threats forced
PEF into classic concession bargaining, negotiating
against our own interests.

The Governor launched his term with a promise to downsize
the state's agencies by 20 percent. In addition, he issued
a demand for $450 million in total annual givebacks from
public-employee-union members. He threatened to lay off up
to 9,800 state workers if unions failed to ratify
concession contracts. And the Legislature followed suit by
including the union givebacks in the state budget
assumptions.

Even while PEF members vote on a new tentative agreement,
Cuomo continues to assert that it will not prohibit
layoffs connected with his aim to downsize the workforce,
only those he threatened as part of his negotiations. SAGE
Commission "determinations," his vehicle to agency
downsizing, consolidations and privatization, are
excluded.

Third Time No Charm

Meanwhile PEF members have suffered three rounds of layoff
threats. In the summer nearly 1,000 PEF layoffs were
threatened just after CSEA reached a tentative agreement.
These were rescinded when PEF accepted a tentative
agreement substantially similar to the CSEA deal. The
second came immediately after PEF members rejected that
contract and 3,496 PEF members were "targeted." The third
round have been put on hold until Nov. 4, the day after
the ballot on a revised tentative agreement will be
counted.

"When the membership rejected the leadership's offer,"
Cuomo said at a press conference, "I think they caught
everyone by surprise." (Everyone except the 19,629 who
voted "no"?)

Like a spoiled child losing at checkers, he demanded that
the union give him a do-over. He also patronized the PEF
leadership, seeming to say that they owed him a "re-vote"
because they had failed to do their job--delivering up the
members' ratification of concessions. PEF members, proud
of their union's democratic traditions, including many who
voted for the contract, were infuriated.

But with 3,496 members held hostage, PEF's leaders
scrambled back to the table. A second tentative agreement,
hastily reached in mid- October, again averted layoffs by
days.

The tentative agreement remains a significant giveback
contract--Cuomo dictated "revenue-neutral" renegotiating
terms: the bottom line would be givebacks of an amount
equivalent to those made by CSEA. Both Cuomo and CSEA have
said the new agreement meets these criteria.

Adding Insult to Injury

Yet if the revised PEF contract is ratified, it seems
difficult to imagine many PEF members savoring the moment
when they paid the ransom to rescue the hostages.

The state workforce has been downsized steadily for two
decades, while wages and benefits have remained flat. A
recent large wave of retirements from state service,
employees who have often not been replaced, has resulted
in a further hardship for the remaining workers.

Not only have New York's professional, technical and
scientific public employees done "more with less" for a
long time, public-sector wages and benefits, when matched
for age, gender and education, remain significantly less
than private-sector wages and benefits. (PEF members tend
to be highly educated and/or with significant longevity,
and many of the union's best activists are women.)

Canards about "greedy state workers" and "too generous"
benefits have particularly anguished public employees
whose work experience has been a tale of year-in and
year-out self-sacrifice on so many levels, including
routine disrespect from incompetent agency leaders whose
job credentials often boil down to political cronyism.
Perhaps PEF members hoped that Andrew Cuomo might have
some idea of these facts when the union endorsed his
campaign for Governor.

On top of all this, the threatened layoffs have nothing to
do with redundant services. Neither will they save the
state money, for the privatization of essential services
as a result of layoffs would end up costing the taxpayers
much more.

Not only essential services but PEF leaders and activists
were "targeted." Union-minded public servants, whether
inclined to ratify or defeat the contract, took profound
offense.

Governor 1 Percent

Cuomo appears to want the leadership of PEF and other
public-sector unions to help manage his austerity program.
His formulation that "the membership rejected the
leadership's offer" was telling. He hopes to make the
union leaders into deputy bullies who will bring their
members to heel.

Cuomo aims not so much to break the unions but to
house-break them. It's the old company-union idea. If, for
example, the SAGE-Commission recommends mass layoffs due
to agency consolidations, downsizing, speed-ups or
privatization, the unions should be there to help the
people lose their jobs smoothly, without strife or
rebellion.

To resist being cast in this role, PEF and other unions
will need to make a fundamental shift in strategy and
tactics. "I've seen many instances where the unions
refused to go along with anything they didn't like," PEF
President Ken Brynien explained in a recent interview,
"and the companies went out of business."

By comparison, the rallying cry "We Are the 99 Percent!"
pierces through. Here in Albany, protesters have renamed
Cuomo "Governor 1 Percent."

This is exactly how we should explain that Cuomo's
assertion that public employees "owed" New York givebacks
equal to $450 million annually has been ridiculous all
along. In the coming fiscal year, keeping the surcharge on
New York millionaires' incomes will increase state revenue
by $5 billion--over 10 times the amount the Governor
claimed public employees "owe" the state.

Mobilizing member-by-member throughout the whole union
movement to win the fight to keep the Millionaires Tax
could help change the whole game. As a counter-offensive
it would provide a means to challenge the Governor's
entire program of austerity--and also to mobilize an
increasingly restive rank and file.

---------------
Dr. Coates is a Steward and Council Leader of Division 231
of the Public Employees Federation in Albany.

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