It was a lockout, not a furlough

New York Gov. David Paterson decided at the end of April to force the state’s unionized workers to give up raises and other contract improvements by slapping them with a one-day furlough. Since the budget was overdue and New York is facing a $9.2 billion deficit, he pushed the furlough through the state Legislature on May 10 by threatening to shut down the state government if it didn’t pass his bill.

The four unions representing the 100,000 state workers to be furloughed went to federal court in Albany two days later and got a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking the furlough. There will be more hearings on the issue on May 26.

This call for a furlough was really a lockout, an employer’s attempt to get the workers to accept what the employer dictates. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts lockouts into the same category as strikes, which are forbidden to public employees in New York state under the Taylor Law.

When the furlough passed on May 10, the four unions involved held a demonstration of around 5,000 people at the state Capitol. They brought the inflatable rat that unions use to protest at a scab work site. The four unions are the Civil Service Employees Association; the Public Employees Federation; the United University Professions, which represents workers at the State University of New York; and the Professional Staff Congress, which represents staff and faculty at the senior colleges of the City University of New York.

The CSEA and PEF also held demonstrations in the following New York state cities: Buffalo; Elmira; Hornell; Rochester; Syracuse; Binghamton; Utica; Poughkeepsie; the boroughs of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan in New York City; Hauppauge; and Watertown. CUNY Contingents United held one in front of Manhattan’s John Jay College. Earlier the PSC had held a demonstration at Paterson’s Manhattan office.

Courtney Brunelle, a political coordinator for CSEA, told the demonstration in Buffalo, “We didn’t create this mess. Wall Street did. We do our job. You do yours.”

Paterson and the media in New York that represent big business made a big point of insisting that the unions “share the sacrifices and reduce the deficit before the state runs out of money.” The New York Times (May 15) is still insisting a furlough is necessary, as well as pay lags and pension cuts.

The unions feel that a contract must bind both sides. They were shocked that their supposed allies in the state Legislature, to whom they had given millions of dollars in donations and boots-on-the-ground aid in the elections, had deserted them and gone over to the other side in the “class struggle” — as one top leader put it.

Ken Brynien, head of the Public Employees Federation, said he wanted the Legislature to know that the furloughs are illegal “and even though some of them believe that they can’t change this temporary appropriations bill, that you have to vote it up or down. If they think it’s clearly illegal, they do have an absolute right to vote it down and send it back.”

Even if the governor gets everything from the unions that he and Wall Street want — which would amount to $250 million — that still wouldn’t solve the state’s budget crisis. The state is going to have to increase its revenue.

The main target for revenue enhancements in New York should be Wall Street. Just rebating 80 percent of the stock transfer tax would bring in $3.2 billion, according to a union-sponsored report. Adding an additional tax bracket for incomes over $1 million would bring in $1 billion. These are just the two largest enhancements.

More than 20 states, according to Newsday of April 30, have responded to the financial collapse by reducing their state budgets. California, Oregon and Hawaii in particular have succeeded in imposing furloughs. While the TRO has postponed the struggle in New York, the crisis is still sharp. No matter how thoroughly and publicly the Democrats in the state Legislature have betrayed the interests of working people, some labor leaders are still tied to their coattails.

The writer is a state worker.