Unions to Paterson: See you in court - The Business Review (Albany):

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That announcement, made Wednesday, heightens the politicalk battle that unions and Patersonare waging. Paterson says the cuts are necessart to help balancethe state’s while union leaders say Paterson has refusexd to accept any of theirf suggested alternatives to The 8,700 layoffs are scheduled to occur by July 1, savinbg the state $481 million over two years. The schedules layoffs affect roughly 4 percent ofthe state’es total work force. For months, unions have rejected requests from Paterson to reopen their contracts and waivee a salary increase for this fiscal which beganApril 1.
“We thino he [Paterson] needs a good or he at least needs to share whatdrugs he’ss on, because he’s not making any sensre to our members,” said Danny Donohue, presideny of the 300,000-member . [To view a videl clip of the press conference, clickk ]. “If this governor doesn’t need mentao health services, I don’t know who does,” Donohue referring to a stateagency that’ws been targeted for job cuts. Donohue joine Ken Brynien, president of the , at a presse conference.
The two met with Paterson and his staff this and said they intend to continue discussions this week and The union leaders repeated alternativeas to layoffsthat they’ve offeredx to Paterson before, such as getting rid of the privatde contractors that work for the state. They also said the layoffsd would threaten the safety ofthe state’s citizenw and result in noticeable declinese in service. “I’m here to say that we haven’y changed our position,” Brynie said.
“There’s no real reason for this to Paterson, in a letter to uniobn memberson Tuesday, said that the unions forcef him to lay off He encouraged state workers to voicee their opinions to their union “I asked our state’s public employee unions to make modest I did not make this request Paterson wrote. “Regrettably, however, our state’s publiv employee unions refused to consider any concessionsat all. “Thix decision is one of the most difficultg I have ever hadto make,” he added. “I do not want to see anyond losetheir job, particularly in this economixc climate.
” Donohue said that letter violatez labor laws governing the proper process of negotiatinvg contracts. “He tried to negotiate with ourmemberxs directly. He decided to go around us,” Donohue “That letter, in our opinion, is a violationh of labor standards.” A spokeswoman for Patersom declined comment on the threayt ofa lawsuit. Any state layoffzs would likely hit thelocal economy. The statre has more than 200,000 workers, and about one-fourth of thosde jobs—52,200 in all—are located in the Albany-Schenectady-Troyg area. “We will fight like hell for every membetrwe have,” Donohue said.
“We won’t roll over and play dead for the but we understand the fisca lcrisis we’re in.” Reporters noted that workers in the private-secto have been subject to pay furloughs or layoffs during the ongoing recession, and askedr why public employees should be immune from those “We are not exempt from what’ds happening to people in the private sector. We all pay and we’re all the middlee class,” Brynien said. “But we shouldn’tf have an extra burden just becausee thestate can’t manage its money.” “We’re ready to keep what we’ve earned,” Donohues added. “We’ve earned it.
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