Cuomo speaks to Brynien, no major talks moving


“The short answer is, there have been no conversations over the weekend, that I’ve heard of. Not that I’ve heard of,” Cuomo told the Times Union. On Friday, “It was basically the same thing thing I’ve said publicly … I wouldn’t characterize it. It was basically the same thing I’ve been saying in public were the same things I said to him. Our conversations have always been professional, so I don’t think there was anything new to the conversation.”

Cuomo said Friday that he was open to “tweaks” to the contract that was defeated, provided they are “revenue neutral.”

PEF officials had been trying to reach the governor, hoping to restart negotiations, right after the tentative contract failed in a vote announced Tuesday. The state has issued layoff notices to just under 3,500 employees in response to the contract failure.

  1. Council 82 says:

    That’s a lot of rambling about nothing. Contract talks are held between members of the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations and PEF’s negotiation team. The real question is, “Governor, have you given any direction to your staff at GOER to schedule any meeting with PEF’s negotiation and if not is there a reason why your staff will not meet under collective bargaining guidelines?”

  2. Taxed says:

    Well since we’ve been talking about the same exact contract terms since July, there really must be no news.

  3. M/C State Worker says:

    PEF employees are so SELFISH! I can’t believe 19,000 Union workers would vote to layoff 3,500 of their brothers and sisters to save a buck!

  4. I took the incentive says:

    Andy is in no hurry to negotiate. His goal was always layoffs. He was probably shocked that CSEA took the deal.

  5. Council 82 says:

    It’s a shame that a man like Gov. Cuomo can’t articulate directly to the retired state employee why he changed the Law in a way to avoid any public debate in any Senate or Assembly chamber about raising premium rates for people on a fixed income. He proudly boasts that it’s unfair to impose a millionaire’s tax on millionaires and yet does a cowardly move and avoids direct legislation which would have allowed open debate in charging ny’ers on fixed incomes additional costs for health care. That was a cowardly lawyer move and just like this answer he gave he’s much more comfortable playing the cowardly lawyer than giving clear answers to clear questions.

  6. John Bonhamm says:

    I guess tough guy Andy didn’t mention what he was up to in his conversation with Brynien: The TU reports the governor’s administration is preparing to outsource OPWDD PEF jobs secondary to the layoffs….if the TU is accurate, it is illegal union busting…..since PEF cannot strike, time to go to court…another example of ‘good faith bargaining’ on the part of Mr. Cuomo and what his SAGE plan is.

  7. Reality, What A Concept says:

    Here is the PEF layoff list by county. What I find most amazing is the percentage of layoff in relative comparisons to counties especially those with both large and small populations. Example, Albany has 998 or 28% of total layoff. New York City has 345 or 9%. Bronx at 49 or 1%. Queens at 87 or 2%. Kings at 74 or around 2% also. Richmond (Staten Island) 129 or 3%. Total for the New York City region, 15% of total or 13% less for all of NYC compared to Albany. I’m so pleased this governor loves his upstate brethren. Even little Schenectady county has more PEF layoffs than Bronx or Queens.
    Albany: 998, Bronx: 49, Broome: 129, Cattaraugus: 8, Cayuga: 14, Chautauqua: 2, Chemung: 34, Clinton: 5, Columbia: 3, Delaware: 7, Dutchess: 115, Erie: 178, Essex: 15, Franklin: 51, Genesee: 12, Greene: 5, Jefferson: 49, Kings: 74, Livingston: 5, Monroe: 184, Nassau: 22, New York: 345, Niagara: 5, Oneida: 86, Onondaga: 227, Orange: 37, Orleans: 7, Otsego: 2, Queens: 87, Rensselaer: 49, Richmond: 129, Rockland: 132, Saratoga: 7, Schenectady: 95, Seneca: 24, St. Lawrence: 51, Steuben: 27, Suffolk: 145, Sullivan: 12, Tompkins: 2, Ulster: 5, Warren: 2, Washington: 8, Wayne: 2, Westchester: 49, Wyoming: 5, Total: 3,496.
    Also look at the totals of downstate compared to upstate.
    All you local anti union bloggers, see you standing behind me in the unemployment line cause you loose too.

  8. Crammed says:

    3 yr. contract
    no furloughs
    no health benefits increase( increases every January anyway)
    and I’ll settle for no raises in the term of the contract or 3% in 3rd yr.

    Now that is a fair contract for Cuomo and the union…no one loses like CSEA did!

  9. Sense the Weakness says:

    “Odds are against layoffs” means the gov doesn’t want to follow through on his threat and the door is open for Ken to negotiate a better deal for PEF. The question is is Ken smart enough to realize his hand has strengthened? Or will he attempt to make meaningless “tweaks” to the existing deal that will not change the outcome?

  10. Reality101 says:

    If I am laid off, what are the restrictions on returning back to work as a contractor? Is it still 2 years in this case? Anyone? Thank you.

  11. John Anderson says:

    1) Drop the furlough language (since the gov can then shut down any time he wants to save the budget on the backs of the state employees instead of cutting where the real fat is – entitlements), 2) insert that employees can only be laid off for lack of work, not to be replaced by contractors (there’s laws on this for private industry, besides contractors cost most and are less efficient – take a look at any state highway contruction job – those are not DOT employees – only contractors build roads anymore). Not happy about the insurance increase or the zeros, but with the above two, it won’t cost anymore and has a real good shot of being accepted – win for the gov, win for the taxpayers.

  12. Silent Lamb says:

    Heres revenue neutral. Health drops 2% points for those over grade 9 and we give 1 more furlough day for the second year. Instead of full layoff protection for duration any future layoffs have to be done thru early rtirement incentives.

  13. ResidentX says:

    unions are slowly joining the occupy wallstreet movement. The movement itself is beginning to spread to other parts of the state and nation.

    Ive said it before and ill say it again. The wealthy had better take a long hard look at the policies theyve paid congress for and realize we are at a tipping point. The politicians have all been bought and paid for by ultra wealthy “investors”. A wakeup call is happening. Do you answer it? or wait for things to get decidedly more violent and aggressive?

    some wealthy have defended that they pay xx% of the taxes while being such a small portion of the population. That same portion of the population controls like 90% of the wealth. You should probably be paying about 90% of the taxes.

  14. ResidentX says:

    people should also remember. This contract hit 90% of PEF with TRIPLE the health care increase that 80% of the CSEA members would see. The $1,000 lump sum in year 3 also made up for and in many cases exceeded the damage done to that same group of CSEA members via the furloughs. The $1,000 represented a fraction of PEF pay and thus resulted in another net loss for the majority of PEF.

    so the majority of CSEA were seeing an 8% increase in health care immediately and their furlough money PLUS some back.

    the majority of PEF were seeing a 24% increase in health care and a loss of pay due to the difference in furloughs and the lump sum.

    It is not rocket science to figure out why CSEA EEEKED out a ratification with much of the union not even bothering to vote while PEF voted it down.

  15. SN says:

    Remove the Weasel Language on the Re-Employment roster (new contract makes it a ‘suggestion.’ Stronger no lay off language. Better the deal on Health Insurance. Shorter term (4 years). Take out for Furlough days over a 12 month period starting with contract ratification and ending a year later.

    Oh yeah.. and remove the weasel language.

    The Governor seems to forget that there are LAWYERS working in PEF who read the contract language and share with other members what the Weasel Language means.

  16. Upstater says:

    The first vote was before the layoff notices went out. So some people may have voted for the contract because they didn’t know if they would lose their job, or not. Now, the layoff notices have went out and everyone knows if they are safe, or not. Unless the Governor offers a better package, no one who is safe has any reason to vote for it. So in all likelyhood, the result will be even more lopsided than before.

    The only difference is, is that for the next election, the Governor won’t have the backing of the unions. This is what a one-term Governor looks like.

  17. The Voice of Reason says:

    According to a story in Monday’s TU, a “well-placed person close to the governor’s negotiators” said that there is an “80% chance” that the governor WON’T go through with the layoffs. Well, if the PEF legal team brings an action for an injunction against the layoffs, then we could bring that figure up to 100%.

    At the same time, if GOER doesn’t return to the bargaining table, then PEF should file an improper practices charge with PERB. However, the parties wouldn’t be returning in order to “tweak” the atrocious contract that the state tried to ram down our throats. That proposal is off the table. Now is the time to begin negotiating a NEW contract that would be acceptable to the membership.

    ATTENTION PEF NEGOTIATING TEAM: Don’t even THINK about selling us out again!

  18. Tweety says:

    I would like to request that all of the readers here sign up for a twitter account.

    Via twitter we can have a voice globally and spread our reach if things continue to go badly.

    There are 50,000 of us. We could trend quite nicely with those numbers.

  19. TL says:

    we heard that they extended the exemption on the 2-year revolving door policy for laid off workers, however you need to apply for the exemption.

  20. All Things Political in Saratoga says:

    I guess I’m wondering what today’s chatter is all about? The contract was successfully, albeit tentatively agreed to by the state and PEF leadership….the members voted not to ratify the agreement and layoffs
    notices were issued. What exactly has changed that would warrant reopening contract negotiations? Either the leadership or rank and file miscalculated what the GOER had been saying for 6 months, now labor wants a “do over”? This Governor means what he says, and says what he means.

  21. vern compas says:

    Cuomo has sacrificed his principles on the altar of oedipal ambition. He only wants to fulfill his father’s destiny by riding the current tide of anti-government rhetoric. The last thing NY needs is more unemployed workers. The contract is punitive,plain-and-simple. According to a Kaiser report released last week the average employee contributes approx. 26% towards their health insurance, we would be at 32%. Factoring in this cost, which will increae every year, there is an effective 3 year pay cut and a 2 year pay freeze, all so Cuomo’s concubine can dine on the taxpayer dime and so she, and all the rich, can get a tax cut. All PEF members want is fairness and respect from the Governor.

  22. @ M/C comment #3 …. thank you for your concern and participation in this. You may have failed to notice The Governor’s comment the other day:

    “If a tweak is I have to provide a guarantee of job security, that’s not a tweak.”

    That makes it very apparent that he had plans to lay folks off no matter the outcome. Wait until things settle (if they do) and he heads for layoffs in CSEA because SAGE has suggested he thin the herd over there.

    If you have real concerns please feel free to voice them. But please take some time to consider that you are being duped. You are being squeezed by the Governor, by the rich, by the Corporations. The middle class is on it’s way to being the Upper Lower Class. Your misdirected comments (anger) only help push us down.

  23. Don1776 says:

    This is the obvious “revenue neutral” solution:

    1. Re-vote the existing contract proposal.
    2. PEF leadership actually does its job by energizing the none-voters to overcome the NO voters.

    Layoffs avoided, everyone lives happily ever after, except the malcontent and ever grumpy NO voters.

  24. Rasputin says:

    An acceptable contract is not necessarily a fair contract. How about a three year contract no raises. Let’s see what happens with the economy. A two percentage points increase in health care (like CSEA) instead of six. If PEF can show you (again) where you can save the same amount of money in non personal services (and you forgo the corporate pressure for profiteering) there would be no need for either furlough’s or layoffs. PEF has done that already with new initiatives in central purchasing, centralized drug purchasing for health insurance, facilities and medicaid And yes you can dump those high priced corporate contracting out costs by giving the work to the people who really care if it is done correctly and choosing employees with the best value not the best campaign donations.

  25. Darcy says:

    I got my pink slip last week, it is my second on in a year and a half. I can only hope that those who voted “no” are that secure in their future with the state. It is not going to end with the small 3,500. Good luck to the rest of you who feel they can sacrifice us for a few dollars. Your time of perks is over.

  26. wondering says:

    @#14,15 & 17 – You all are exactly right, imo. PEF Leadership has an opportunity to get a fairer contract but should act promptly from a position of logic and strength in the knowledge of Collective Bargaining Law in NYS – push for a fair contract, file for an injunction to halt any layoffs while negotiations are pending and if there are in fact layoffs that would be an improper practice and support a lawsuit for a violation of PERB rules on Bad Faith Bargaining. Move forward now.

  27. Lou says:

    Quit your crying. If you don’t like it Please Quit.

  28. Chester Snodgrass says:


    Missing from this analysis is any information regarding the number of PEF employees in each county. Since NYC has its own fairly complex local government, its likely that there are less State employees there. I would be surprised to learn that the Capital District didn’t have the the largest population of PEF employees.
    IMHO, it would be more meaningful to calculate the percentage, against the count of PEF employees (filled items), not the general population.

  29. Gail says:

    Hey Prince how about 3 years of 0% with ERI for those over 55 and 25 years, no penalty only and off the payroll by 12/31/11. Get full quarter of savings at minimal cost. Would allow agencies to transition rather than just respond to layoffs which hurt the economy. Must start thinking outside the circle of consultants and listen to the common person who must live with your decisions.

  30. Anything new on a possible retirement incentive?

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