Union Yields on Benefits in Agreement With Cuomo

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

New York State’s second-largest union of public workers, facing hundreds of layoffs that had been scheduled to take effect within days, agreed on Saturday to significant wage and benefit concessions in order to save the jobs of its members.

The five-year agreement between Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and the Public Employees Federation largely mirrors the deal struck last month with the state’s largest public employee union, the Civil Service Employees Association, which also agreed to big concessions in exchange for giving its members immunity from most layoffs.

The federation, which represents about 55,000 state workers, agreed to forgo any raises for three years, accept furlough days for the first time and increase the amount members contribute toward their health insurance coverage.

The concessions in the deal, which must be ratified by the union’s membership, would save the state $75 million this fiscal year and nearly $400 million over the course of the contract, the governor’s office said.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/nyregion/to-save-jobs-union-approves-big-concessions-in-deal-with-cuomo.html

[Liberal Veteran]

1. Yay! Cuomo is such a liberal bulwark!

:sarcasm:

[Honeycombe8]

2. Well, the state is having a financial crisis. This is going to be rough, but I'd do that, in order

I'd agree to that, rather than be laid off. It's for five years, so hopefully that won't turn into permanence.

[zalinda]

3. We give more to the feds than any other state

except, maybe Calif. But we don't get the same amount of money BACK from the feds, they instead give it to red states. If we could keep all of our money, we might be in a better financial position.

Andrew, is not his father, that is for sure. I'm hoping Mario still has some influence over him.

zalinda

[Honeycombe8]

6. I don't know why NY state doesn't get as much as you think it should from the fed govt...

but I would think it has something to do with the lack of pork your Congress people try to get. No Bridge to Nowhere, things like that?

Other than that, money from the fed govt is formulaic. You do/spend this, you get/receive that. It's a basic thing. If a state spends a certain amount on Medicaid, it receives a certain amount from the fed for Medicaid. Doesn't matter which state it is.

But if it were me, and my employer gave us a choice, I think we at my firm would choose pay freezes or cuts, rather than layoffs. We had both at my firm. We didn't have a choice.

It's great they had a choice. I guess because they're union. It's not permanent. At least I hope it doesn't become permanent. But it's for 5 years, in a written contract, which is more than most workers have going for them.

It sucks. But these are hard times. I just don't see the fat cats "sacrificing." We workers are sacrificing, and maybe it should be that way. But it should be shared by those at the top.

[customerserviceguy]

7. Yep, NY is broke

And I've already seen a lot of folks who are fleeing NY and NJ (where I work) for lower-tax states down South.

Yes, this is a bitter pill to swallow, but at least Gov. Cuomo and the unions are negotiating things out, rather than just jam through laws that are designed to destroy unions. Gov. Patterson was hounded out of running for re-election by the unions who ran ads against him, and I'm dead sure Palladino would have been very much worse.

I'm glad to see some of the banksters and the Wall Street sharpies who got us into this mess out of work, but their taxes were funding NYC and the state. With them gone, and the money they spread around gone, this region has had to tighten the hell out of it's belt.

[BeyondGeography]

4. Hundreds of jobs saved

Let's bash Andrew.

[DLnyc]

5. Needs to raise the top tax rate.

How is it we have a Democratic governor who refuses to raise the top rate but cuts benefits for working people? New York has large numbers of ultra-wealthy who have been getting huge breaks under Reagan and Bush instituted policies. They could a afford to kick in a little before we cut the hell out of public salaries, education and essential services.

Cuomo is not much of a Democrat, really.

[Cool Logic]

8. Clearly, their leadership acted much more responsibly than that of Chicago's workers.

http://www.wbez.org/story/emanuel-lay-625-workers-after-union-misses-deadline-89207

Cuomo set a good example by cutting his and staff's salaries first. His rational approach in managing NY's budget is one of the reasons his popularity ratings are so high.

[RoccoR5955]

9. He would rather balance the budget on the backs of Civil Service workers than...

... wage a $.0025 tax on Wall Street transactions. A quarter of a cent per transaction would go a long way to balancing the budget. These guys simply do not get it. I, for one, have had it with the neo-Democrats. They are merely RepubliCON lite.

[Name removed]

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[watajob]

11. They best part of this clown...

... must have run down Mario's leg. And, hey! How about those unions?!