Mass layoffs threaten New York state and city employees

[Hannah Bell]

By William Moore
11 April 2009

New York’s Democratic Governor David Paterson is moving forward with a plan to lay off nearly 9,000 state workers...While expressing regret regarding the need to take this action, the governor repeated his claim that he has no alternative because of the refusal by state employee unions to accept cuts in their existing contracts...

The job cuts will reportedly represent 6.6 percent of each agency’s unionized workforce. The majority of the cuts will take place in agencies that affect health, education, welfare, recreation or other necessary services. Among the hardest hit agencies would be the departments of Mental Retardation and Mental Health, which would lose 1,434 workers and 1,054 respectively. The Department of Health would see 366 layoffs...

Notably, no cuts will be made to the governor’s executive staff, which was significantly augmented since Paterson took over from Eliot Spitzer a year ago...

Meanwhile, New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg threatened Wednesday to lay off 7,000 city workers...on top of 1,300 already proposed and another 8,000 jobs to be eliminated through attrition.

The billionaire Bloomberg said that workers could only avoid the job cuts if they agree to work with the city to amend state pension laws to provide lower benefits and to accept co-pays on their health insurance premiums....“This is not a negotiating strategy,” said Bloomberg. “Pension costs and health costs...are going to bankrupt this city.”

What is bankrupting the city, as well as the state, is the collapse of revenues from Wall Street, where Bloomberg made his fortune. Now workers are being told to pay for the financial crisis that he and his associates created...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/apr2009/nylo-a11.shtml