confusion-9320633Now that the state Public Employees Federation (PEF) has rejected a proposed contract, Governor Andrew Cuomo is moving forward with 3,500 layoffs.  Or, then again, maybe not.

This article in the Albany Times Union suggests there is an 80 percent likelihood the governor and union will reach a new deal without layoffs.  The newspaper also reports that “Cuomo is demanding that any modifications [to the rejected PEF contract] have no costs.”

“No costs”?  How about those savings of “$75 million this fiscal year, $92 million next fiscal year, and almost $400 million over the contract term” that the governor was supposedly counting on?

Maybe the Times Union misunderstood what it was told, or someone in the Capitol wasn’t very clear.  Maybe the paper’s anonymous source(s) in the administration meant that any “tweaks” to the PEF contract should not reduce the net value of the concessions Cuomo had identified as his price for avoiding layoffs.  Or, then again, maybe not.  The signals at the moment are confusing, to say the least.

Meanwhile:

  • A local pol said the impact of a projected 1,149 PEF member layoffs in the Capital Region would be (wait for it) … yes, “devastating.” Which is no doubt an accurate description of the impact on affected households.  But to keep the economic impact in context: in the last three years, the Capital Region has lost 9,500 private-sector jobs, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.  And during the same period, also according to BLS, state government in Albany-Schenectady-Troy area has shed 6,200 jobs entirely through attrition and early retirement.
  • Although they have yet to agree to their own contract deal, Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) members working for the state court system are learning that they will be subject to the same change in health insurance premiums called for in a new contract ratified by CSEA’s executive branch employees last month.  The existing contract between the United Court System (UCS) and CSEA’s court unit specifies that CSEA-represented court employees receive the same health insurance benefits as executive branch workers, according to a union memo passed along by a court employee.

You may also like

Cuomo’s House Testimony Added New Misinformation about Covid in Nursing Homes

Throughout the scandal over former Governor Andrew Cuomo's handling of Covid-19 in nursing homes, Cuomo and his administration repeatedly spread bad information – misstating how its policies had worked, understating death Read More

What Paul Francis Got Wrong About the Empire Center’s Nursing Home Research

In February 2021, the Empire Center published the first independent analysis of the Cuomo's administration much-debated directive ordering Covid-positive patients into nursing homes. The report found that the directive was associated with a statistically significant increase in resident deaths in the homes that admitted the  infected patients. Read More

Internal Cuomo Administration Documents Showed Evidence of Harm from Nursing Home Order

State Health Department documents from June 2020, newly unearthed by congressional investigators, appear to show harmful effects from a controversial order requiring nursing homes to admit Covid-positive patients. Read More

On Covid in Nursing Homes, There’s No Comparison Between Cuomo and Walz

Former Governor Andrew Cuomo and his political critics have something in common: They're both trying to drag Minnesota Governor Tim Walz into Cuomo's nursing home scandal. Cuomo’s attempt to hide behind Walz, li Read More

How 1199 Earns its Reputation as Albany’s No. 1 Labor Power Broker

For the fourth time in six years, the president of New York's largest health-care union, George Gresham of 1199SEIU, has won the top spot on the "Labor Power 100" list from City &am Read More

A Closer Look at $4 Billion in State Capital Grants to Health Providers

[Editor's note: This post was corrected after it came to light that records supplied by the Health Department gave wrong addresses for 44 grant recipients. The statistics and tables below were updated on July 18.] Read More

Hochul’s Pandemic Study Is a $4.3 Million Flop

The newly released study of New York's coronavirus pandemic response falls far short of what Governor Hochul promised – and the state urgently needs – in the aftermath of its worst natural disaster in modern history. Read More

82 Questions Hochul’s Pandemic Report Should Answer

This is the month when New Yorkers are due to finally receive an official report on the state's response to the Covid-19 pandemic, one of the deadliest disasters in state history. T Read More