(public employees) New York Unions Press Members to Accept Deal

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Source: The New York Times

New York labor leaders, spooked by public workers’ rejection of negotiated concessions in Connecticut, are beginning a carefully planned campaign to persuade more than 100,000 state employees to accept a wage freeze and other measures in order to avoid sweeping layoffs.

The state’s largest union of public workers, the Civil Service Employees Association, has sent contract negotiators across the state as part of an effort to persuade health care, maintenance and clerical workers that it would be better to stomach furloughs, benefit cuts and three years without a salary increase than to risk losing thousands of jobs as the state cuts costs.

The second-largest union, the Public Employees Federation, also plans to campaign for its members’ approval after agreeing Saturday to nearly identical concessions. Together, the two unions represent more than half of New York’s public work force.

The reaction of rank-and-file members is a test both for union leaders, who are trying to protect jobs in a political climate that is increasingly hostile to public employees, and for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who is trying to rein in spending without alienating labor, a traditional Democratic constituency. Mr. Cuomo won approval of a state budget that depends on $450 million in labor savings, and he has warned of as many as 9,800 layoffs if union members do not agree to concessions. He has also proposed limiting pension benefits for future employees.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/18/nyregion/new-york-labor-leaders-urge-members-to-approve-contracts.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

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Danny Donohue, president of the Civil Service Employees Association, the state's largest public union, in Albany in February at a rally for Wisconsin workers.