Hey, Big Labor, Albany’s got your back.

A provision tucked into the state budget gives public-employee unions the right to deny many services, such as free legal help, to covered employees who opt not to join or pay dues.

The US Supreme Court is soon expected to decide whether states such as New York that give unions the right to compel payment of “agency fees” from workers who refuse to join violate those employees’ First Amendment rights.

The fees are basically a portion of regular union dues, excluding spending on political activities.

To push employees to keep filling union coffers, the new state law says unions are no longer obligated to provide any services to opt-out members beyond basic salary and benefits required by contract.

For example, an opt-out worker who is brought up on disciplinary charges now has to pay for his or her own lawyer instead of using a union attorney without charge.

“It’s to let employees know what they’re getting. Why should you be getting benefits if you don’t pay dues?” asked Assemblyman Peter Abbate (D-Brooklyn), who chairs the Governmental Employees Committee and helped draft the law in consultation with the state AFL-CIO.

“If you’re not paying dues, then there’s not enough money for the unions to provide you service.”

In addition, the law makes it easier for unions to sign up workers and more difficult for workers to withdraw, by requiring the government to begin dues deductions “no later than 30 days” after getting an authorization form.

Critics slammed the law as an election-year kiss to Big Labor.

Kenneth Girardin, of the Empire Center for Public Policy, called it “the budget’s big gift to unions” from both Democrats and Republicans.

“Ironically,” he said, “the provision preemptively limiting worker rights and benefiting the unions could not have made it into the budget without agreement of Senate Republicans — whose slender working majority has been targeted by campaigns funded largely by NYSUT and UFT,” the state and local teachers unions.

Doug Kellogg, of the watchdog group Reclaim New York, added, “It’s strong-arming government workers to keep them in line in order to protect politically powerful special interests — the unions.”

Kellogg ripped Gov. Cuomo and legislators for jumping into the fray without even knowing what the Supreme Court will do.

“It’s logical for the court to decide that workers can’t be forced to fund political opinions they don’t agree with. There’s no respect for workers’ rights. It’s all about political power games and protecting the people who run ­Albany,” he said.

Cuomo, a Democrat seeking re-election to a third term, championed the pro-labor law.

You may also like

Policy analyst: Cuomo wrong to write-off nursing home criticism as political conspiracy

“The importance of discussing this and getting the true facts out is to understand what did and didn’t happen so we can learn from it in case this happens again,” Hammond said. Read More

The good, the bad and the ugly in Cuomo’s budget

“We are at the early stages of what shapes up as the biggest state and city fiscal crisis since the Great Depression,” said E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center. “Borrowing and short-term cuts aside, the budget doesn’t chart any clear path out of it.” Read More

Editorial: Cuomo’s problematic Medicaid maneuvers

“It’s everything that’s wrong with Albany in one ugly deal,” Bill Hammond, a health policy expert at the fiscally conservative Empire Center, told The Times. Read More

Gov. Cuomo’s Lawsuit on Pres. Trump’s Tax Cuts Dismissed

But according to the Empire Center, a non-profit group based in Albany, the overall impact of the Trump tax cuts actually benefited most state residents. Read More

NYS Healthcare Costs Rise Amid Report Of Pay-To-Play Allegations

Earlier this year, another fiscal watchdog group,  The Empire Center, found that  Cuomo’s budget office had delayed a $1.7 billion Medicaid payment from the previous fiscal year into the current fiscal year. Because of the delay, the governor was able to keep within a self imposed 2% yearly spending cap. Read More

After Hospitals’ Donation to New York Democrats, a $140 Million Payout

“It’s everything that’s wrong with Albany in one ugly deal,” said Bill Hammond, a health policy expert at the nonpartisan Empire Center who first noticed the budgetary trick. “The governor was able to unilaterally direct a billion dollars to a major interest group while secretly accepting its campaign cash and papering over a massive deficit in the Medicaid program.” Read More

What Cuomo’s executive order on vaping will and won’t do

“If you have these really young kids and teens getting hooked, then that’s not good," said Bill Hammond, director of health policy at the Empire Center for Public Policy. "But the first step would be to do some research, have a public hearing, get the best expert evidence that you have. Instead of reacting to headlines, find out what’s really going on and proceed with proposed regulations.” Read More

$1 billion semiconductor plant: ‘Flashy mega-project’ or ‘transformational investment’ for New York?

"The state is continuing its strategy of pursuing flashy mega-projects instead of making New York more attractive for all businesses. We're now in the second decade of this approach, and it's still failing to deliver the promised results," Girardin said. "This is the sort of economic development strategy that politicians turn to when they don't want to take on the tougher questions." Read More