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

Emails show Cuomo’s staff working on his memoir at the peak of New York’s pandemic

Newly available records shed further light on the origins of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo's pandemic memoir, which won him a $5.1 million publishing contract before contributing to his political downfall. The records reveal that his government staff were a Read More

Utility board turns into union tool

The idea that the PSC would artificially drive electricity costs higher to benefit a political constituency represents a new low. Read More

Hochul’s Pandemic Study Is Off to an Underwhelming Start

Although Governor Hochul's long-promised review of New York's COVID response hasn't formally started yet, it has already exposed important information about the state's pandemic preparedness – much of which is unflattering. Read More

New Docs Raise Big Questions About NY’s Megafab Mega-Deal

The Hochul Administration published a pair of documents concerning the Micron Megafab deal that raise more questions than they answer. Read More

City union scandal isn’t NY’s first

One of New York City’s largest public-sector unions has been effectively taken over by its national parent after an audit revealed extensive financial mismanagement. It’s the latest example of misconduct made possible under New York’s public-sector collective bargaining rules that force the government to collect hundreds of millions of dollars annually without any safeguards on how the funds are spent.  Read More

Firefighter-rights bill torches local control

Two of Albany’s most-vetoed concepts are headed toward Governor Hochul’s desk, this time concealed as a “firefighter bill of rights.”  Read More

Still-Unreleased Union Deal Rains Cash on State Workers

The still-unreleased deal between the Hochul Administration and the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA), state government’s largest group of unionized workers, would award bonuses, backpay, and guaranteed raises the next three years, documents sent to union members show. Read More

Answers needed on Governor Hochul’s health-care budget

The health-care agenda laid out by Governor Hochul in her budget proposal this week leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Here are a few of them. 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!