Tag: Unions

There are two versions of the bill extending but tweaking the state’s binding arbitration law on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s website. The three-decade-old law, which sets the process for the settling of labor disputes between localities and their police and fire unions, was scheduled to sunset later this month. The governor was determined to see it customized to ensure that arbitration panels give greater weight to a locality’s “ability to pay” as well as to comparisons of contracts for similar communities and similar unions within the given locality. Read More

Governor Deval Patrick says he will eliminate 2,000 jobs unless public employee unions make concessions, including possible unpaid furloughs. Patrick's approach contrasts with that of New York Governor David Paterson, who also on Thursday, propose Read More

The best that can be said of New York City's just-negotiated tentative contract with its principal public-employee union, District Council 37, is that it will expire relatively soon, in June 2002. Meanwhile, the agreement sets a costly precedent at a time when the city's budget picture is dimming. Read More

DESPITE the improving national and regional economy, New York City's budget remains stuck in a hole. With operating expenses momentarily in check, the city's continuing fiscal imbalance stems mainly from big projected increases in the cost of Medicaid, debt service, employee health benefits - and, seemingly out of nowhere, pension contributions. Read More

When independent "dollar van" operators began to proliferate in Queens and Brooklyn in the wake of the 1980 transit strike, local politicians moved quickly to protect New York's inefficient public (and union) transit monopoly. Read More

Adding to the pressure created by rising Medicaid and other costs, local governments and school districts all over New York are being hammered by massive increases in pension costs for public employees. Read More

Disputes over wages, health insurance and work rules, are nothing new in transit negotiations. But one of the most contentious issues in the latest contract talks between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union has implications that go far beyond the cost of a MetroCard. Read More

A proposal by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to restructure employee pensions reportedly was the issue that this week's illegal strike by Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union. Read More