Paterson only laying off Union workers, sparing non-Union ones
       |           

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?
March 28, 2024, 04:04:34 AM
News: Election Simulator 2.0 Released. Senate/Gubernatorial maps, proportional electoral votes, and more - Read more

  Talk Elections
  Other Elections - Analysis and Discussion
  Gubernatorial/State Elections (Moderators: Brittain33, GeorgiaModerate, Gass3268, Virginiá, Gracile)
  Paterson only laying off Union workers, sparing non-Union ones
« previous next »
Pages: [1]
Author Topic: Paterson only laying off Union workers, sparing non-Union ones  (Read 2369 times)
Lunar
Atlas Superstar
*****
Posts: 30,404
Ireland, Republic of
Show only this user's posts in this thread
« on: April 08, 2009, 11:51:36 AM »

Does he even care about the Democratic primary anymore?

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=788050

ALBANY — Gov. David Paterson continued to flex his muscle with labor unions Tuesday, releasing a letter that says he is exempting nonunion employees from planned layoffs because they are sacrificing the same pay raises that union workers refuse to give up.

Paterson reduced his layoff target by 200 to 8,700 because "management/confidential" employees — managers and secretaries who are not in unions — will be denied the 3 percent pay raises union employees will get under contractual agreements. Paterson used his power to rescind the raises for about 11,000 management/confidential workers.

The governor also revealed a list of the proposed cuts, ranging from 2,021 at Corrections to zero at his executive chamber. Other big hits targeted; 1,434 at the Office of Mental Retardation; 1,054 at Mental Health; 386 at State Police; 366 at Health; 317 at Taxation & Finance; and 245 at Children and Family Services; 100 at General Services.

As a result of killing the raises to the management/confidential employees, the state will save $32 million over two years, and Paterson won't have to reach the 8,900-layoff target he previously set.

Civil Service Employees Association President Danny Donohue said Paterson's actions are outrageous. "What Governor Paterson is saying is that the highest-paid personnel will not be included as part of his cost-cutting moves. He is also saying that the brunt of his reductions will be on the lower paid employees who actually do the work of the state every day."

Some labor officials say it is not possible to bypass nonunion employees to lay off union people in the same title with more seniority. For instance many workers at Civil Service are management/confidential because they handle confidential information but they may have the same title as union people in the same agency.

"People still want their raises," said Barbara Zaron, president of the Organization of Management Confidential Employees. She said a lot of people feel let down by Paterson, who had suggested in previous communications that all workers would be getting raises this month.

"We are in discussions with the (Division of the) Budget and governor's office about some potential alternatives," Zaron said. "We're hopeful that maybe we can get the raises reinstated if we can get the saving from other means."

Paterson released a letter to all state employees about the situation, emphasizing that unions refused "modest concessions" — giving up the raises and lagging paychecks — to share in sacrifices others are making.

"Regrettably, however, our state's public employee unions refused to consider concessions at all," Paterson wrote. "I was left with no alternative but to implement a work force reduction plan." He said he directed all state agency heads to implement their reductions by July 1.

"We cannot eliminate our state's deficit without layoffs," he said.

Public Employees Federation officials say the governor's proposed concessions add up to a 5 percent cut in pay. "It is clear that his goal is not to make state government more efficient and cost-effective, but to extract an additional pound of flesh from hardworking public employees" said PEF President Ken Brynien. He said he intends to meet with Paterson today to emphasize there are other ways to come up with the roughly $449 million in savings he seeks through layoffs.

Paterson said union leaders have not been willing to compromise to prevent layoffs. "We felt we had no other choice but to lay these people off until the economy recovers," Paterson said.

Some fiscal watchdogs, including the Citizens Budget Commission, say the governor's layoff number is too small, and that hundreds more could be cut from the payroll.
Logged
Landslide Lyndon
px75
Atlas Star
*****
Posts: 26,611
Greece


Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2009, 11:57:55 AM »

Either the guy has a political death wish or, more probably, he wants to go out with a bang.
Logged
Kaine for Senate '18
benconstine
Atlas Superstar
*****
Posts: 30,329
United States


Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2009, 12:21:02 PM »

Like I said, he won't even both running in the primary again.
Logged
Lief 🗽
Lief
Atlas Legend
*****
Posts: 44,875


Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2009, 01:15:21 PM »

Haha, okay. There goes my sympathy for the guy.
Logged
Eraserhead
Atlas Legend
*****
Posts: 44,405
United States


Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #4 on: April 08, 2009, 01:20:30 PM »

I'm not even necessarily a big union booster but to hell with this guy.
Logged
Rowan
RowanBrandon
Junior Chimp
*****
Posts: 6,692


Political Matrix
E: 1.94, S: 4.70

Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #5 on: April 08, 2009, 02:39:18 PM »

Good move. If they don't want to sacrifice like everyone else, screw them.
Logged
Lunar
Atlas Superstar
*****
Posts: 30,404
Ireland, Republic of
Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #6 on: April 08, 2009, 04:02:33 PM »

It's not a matter of punishing them, it's simply a matter of firing the employees that give the worst cost-benefit ratio, supposing you have to cut costs (which New York desperately has to do).

Big companies, for example, oftentimes fire their most experienced and longest-serving employees because the length of their service makes them cost >$500k, or whatevsky.

Poor move for reelection though, unions are important endorsements in Democratic primaries
Logged
Scam of God
Einzige
Junior Chimp
*****
Posts: 5,159
United States


Political Matrix
E: 6.19, S: -9.91

Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2009, 05:41:38 PM »

Paterson is absolutely right in doing this. Governmental employees, insofar as they serve the people, have no right to hold the people's interests at ransom to gratify their own needs
Logged
Sam Spade
SamSpade
Atlas Star
*****
Posts: 27,547


Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2009, 11:49:45 PM »

You do realize that this is the *only* pain for government employee unions in the whole budget. 

Seriously, every other part of this budget has been written at the behest of Sheldon Silver, the public employee unions and the WFP.
Logged
Associate Justice PiT
PiT (The Physicist)
Atlas Politician
Atlas Superstar
*****
Posts: 31,135
United States


Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #9 on: April 09, 2009, 02:01:07 AM »

     Hopefully now they know the price for being too hard-headed.
Logged
Hash
Hashemite
Moderators
Atlas Superstar
*****
Posts: 32,401
Colombia


WWW Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #10 on: April 09, 2009, 06:51:38 AM »

Good. Unions are fail.
Logged
WalterMitty
Atlas Star
*****
Posts: 21,572


Political Matrix
E: 1.68, S: -2.26

Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #11 on: April 09, 2009, 07:48:57 AM »

Good move. If they don't want to sacrifice like everyone else, screw them.

^^^^^
Logged
TomC
TCash101
Junior Chimp
*****
Posts: 6,973


Show only this user's posts in this thread
« Reply #12 on: April 10, 2009, 06:12:37 PM »
« Edited: April 10, 2009, 06:21:54 PM by TCash101 »

So, 3% or less (some jobs will be cut through attrition) of the union will get laid off and 97% will not lose any salary. And they can claim they've been slighted. This is not a losing scenario for the union.
Logged
Pages: [1]  
« previous next »
Jump to:  


Login with username, password and session length

Terms of Service - DMCA Agent and Policy - Privacy Policy and Cookies

Powered by SMF 1.1.21 | SMF © 2015, Simple Machines

Page created in 0.042 seconds with 12 queries.