Yesterday’s contract ratification vote by Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) will help Gov. Cuomo reach his workforce savings targets in a tightly balanced state budget.  Almost as important, Cuomo’s five-year deal with the largest state government union — including a three-year base pay freeze, nine furlough days, and an increase in employee health insurance contributions — creates a benchmark for public-sector collective bargaining throughout the state, where many other government employees are represented by CSEA locals.

logo1-300x107-9416388As CSEA President Danny Donohue said after the vote, “these are not ordinary times.”  Using the state contract as an example, local governments and school districts can press their unions to acknowledge reality as well.

Cuomo’s labor savings priorities shouldn’t be limited to state agencies; he also needs to stand firmly behind demands for similar concessions from employees of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which he controls. As the New York Post noted in an editorial today: “Already, John Samuelsen — president of the MTA’s chief union, the Transport Workers Union — has insisted that his 38,000 members absolutely, positively won’t accept the pay-freeze deal agreed to by leaders of the CSEA as well as the state’s second-largest union, the Public Employees Federation.”

PEF’s tentative contract is subject to a membership ratification vote that is scheduled be tallied on Sept. 27.  Since PEF’s membership consists of higher-paid professional and technical employees, its acceptance of the contract will actually generate somewhat more in budgetary savings than the CSEA deal.  And those savings are needed.

About the Author

E.J. McMahon

Edmund J. McMahon is Empire Center's founder and a senior fellow.

Read more by E.J. McMahon

You may also like

DeRosa Is Still Hiding the Truth About Cuomo’s Pandemic Response

As the long-time top aide to former Governor Andrew Cuomo, Melissa DeRosa ought to have useful information to share about the state's pandemic response – especially about what went wrong and how the state could be better Read More

One Brooklyn Health’s Money Troubles Raise a Billion-Dollar Question

A brewing fiscal crisis at One Brooklyn Health, which has received more than $1 billion in turnaround funding from the state, raises the question of whether that money has been well spent. Read More

Beware of Medicaid’s Spending Swings

The state's Medicaid spending is becoming increasingly volatile from month to mo Read More

Pols Craft More Handouts for Sinking Construction Unions

New York’s construction unions, facing a decades-long decline, are employing a time-honored tactic: getting state government to stop people from competing with them. Read More

Emails Confirm That Cuomo’s Staff Launched Its ‘Book’ Project in March 2020

A pair of state-employed writers began researching, outlining and drafting a book about Governor Andrew Cuomo's pandemic response in late March 2020, weeks before New York's harrowing first wave had passed, according to newly disclosed email records. Read More

A Politically Active Medical Group Gains Access to Funds for ‘Distressed’ Providers

A politically connected medical group in the Bronx garnered an unusual benefit in the new state budget – access to money previously reserved for financially troubled safety-net hospitals and nursing homes. Read More

Union Rallies Long Island Pols Against NYC Kids

New York’s statewide teachers union has been cashing in political chits as it seeks to block new charter schools from opening in New York City, asking the senators and assemblymembers Read More

Hochul’s ‘Pay and Resolve’ Push for Hospitals Triggers Déjà Vu

Two years ago last week, I wrote in the Daily News about how then-Governor Andrew Cuomo was pushing a costly change to insurance law on behalf of a hospital group that had supported his campaign through a fund-rai Read More

Empire Center Logo Enjoying our work? Sign up for email alerts on our latest news and research.
Together, we can make New York a better place to live and work!