New York is not Wisconsin, or Ohio. Instead of grinding through a contentious effort to strip unions of their collective bargaining rights like in other states, Gov. Andrew Cuomo was able to wring concessions from the state’s two largest unions without resorting to layoffs.

Governor Cuomo said, “Collaborative works. The collaborative works. You look at other states and other situations that have gotten combative, this shows that collaboration works and I believe we’ve been more productive than most situations where it got combative.”

It’s a point of pride for Cuomo, who this week scored yet another win with the Public Employees Federation’s approval of a revised contract. But in a state where public-sector union enrollment outnumbers private-sector members, the relatively smooth process isn’t too surprising.

Jack McEneny of the Albany Assembly said, “In New York we have long history of being a leader in the union movement both in the public and in the private sector. So I think there’s generally more respect given to unions. “

But trouble is on the horizon for a governor who also wants to scale back pension benefits in order to save money, a move opposed by organized labor. He proposed a new, less generous pension tier earlier this year, but it went nowhere. Cuomo said this week he still supports finding savings in retirement costs.

“I think pension reform is important, yes,” said Cuomo.

Budget hawks, however, said Cuomo needs to do more.

E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for NYS Policy said, “He needs to propose a structural change in the pension system that puts things on a whole different footing and I think that involves going to a different sort of pension entirely. Unfortunately the governor has not proposed that. He’s proposed a same but less pension. He’s proposed taking what we have and simply making it less.”

And changes to the pension system, three years after Gov. David Paterson pushed through a Tier Five proposal, will face an uphill battle in the Democratic-led Assembly.

“I see a struggle. But I think certainly in this house we will try and let it stay the way it is for a while longer and let it do its job,” said McEneny.

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