Union Yields on
Benefits in Deal With Cuomo
By THOMAS KAPLAN
Published: July 16, 2011 - 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
across-the-board 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.
“This agreement reflects the financial reality of the times,” Mr. Cuomo said
in a statement. “I am pleased that we could avoid these layoffs, protect the
work force and the taxpayer.”
The union’s president, Kenneth Brynien, made clear that the impending layoffs
were a driving force in reaching the deal.
“This was a difficult agreement to reach, but with our members’ jobs in peril
and the state’s fiscal hardship, we’ve stepped up and made the necessary
sacrifices,” Mr. Brynien said in a statement. “The agreement will preserve our
members’ jobs and careers while bringing long-term fiscal stability to the
state.”
The pact came less than a month after the Civil Service Employees
Association, which generally represents workers who are paid less than the more
white-collar membership of the Public Employees Federation, reached a pact with
the governor.
At the time, the federation and Mr. Cuomo’s representatives were still at
odds. The negotiations with both unions lacked the sort of public enmity seen
recently in other states like Wisconsin and New Jersey, where the governors took
a more confrontational approach.
Mr. Cuomo’s budget assumed $450 million in savings from reduced labor costs,
and the governor had said that as
many as 9,800 layoffs could be necessary if none of the state’s public
employee unions accepted wage freezes and other concessions.
As negotiations with the Public Employees Federation dragged on, the Cuomo
administration notified 700 union members in recent weeks that their positions
were scheduled to be eliminated if no agreement were reached.
The first wave of layoffs was scheduled to take effect on Friday, providing
something of a hard deadline for Mr. Cuomo and union representatives to reach an
agreement.
The governor’s office directed state agencies on Saturday to rescind the
layoff notices in light of the agreement.
Like the deal with the Civil Service Employees Association, the agreement
with the Public Employees Federation would impose a wage freeze for three years,
followed by raises of 2 percent in the contract’s final two years.
Workers would also have to take nine furlough days over the next two years,
though four of the days would be repaid at the end of the contract.
The agreement would also require increased employee contributions to health
care plans. For example, a lower-paid state worker who now contributes 10
percent toward his or her individual health insurance premiums would have to pay
12 percent under the new contract; for a higher-paid worker, the required
contribution would rise to 16 percent.
Over all, the state would save $54 million annually and as much as $248
million over the course of the contract from various health care changes, the
governor’s office said.
If both major labor deals are ratified, a majority of state workers would be
protected from most layoffs for the next two years.
Agreements have still not been reached with several smaller bargaining units
that represent state employees.
A Cuomo spokesman said on Saturday that it was still possible that other
state workers could be laid off if their unions did not also strike agreements
with the administration.
Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, has further labor battles ahead: he said in an
interview on Wednesday that his top priority next year would be to limit
retirement benefits for new state and city workers.
Edmund J. McMahon, senior fellow at the Empire Center for New York State
Policy, a research group that favors reduced government spending, said that
short of seeking transformative changes to the rules governing how public
employees are compensated, Mr. Cuomo reached the best possible agreement.
“It’s a day of reckoning for the unions, and he negotiated an appropriately
tough deal with them,” Mr. McMahon said. “They preserve their jobs, and he got
his savings.”