CSEA: New York Governor Paterson Tactics Tantamount To Union Busting

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/10925

By Doug Cunningham

In New York state the Civil Service Employees Association says Gov. David Paterson is using anti-union politics to resolve the state's budget crisis. The CSEA says Gov. Paterson’s threat to lay off 9,000 corrections, state police and mental health workers unless unions accept concessions endangers public safety. CSEA’s Steve Medaris says the governor is carrying out an anti-union political agenda.

: “He’s not interested in anything that we could come up with to save the state money short of re-opening the contracts. This is really tantamount to union-busting.”

[Muttocracy]

1. billboards coming out soon:

CSEA and PEF continue their assault on Gov. David Paterson over the governor’s proposed 8,900 layoffs. The images above will appear on an electronic billboard on I-90 near Everett Road in Albany. Soon, CSEA will be airing tv and radio ads throughout the state. (A television ad that is already airing in the Capital Region and Buffalo is after the jump.)

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/13585/photoshopped-paterson-on-i-90

[Muttocracy]

2. but I guess they can get more unemployment

:eyes:

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=789905&category=STATE

As more and more New Yorkers find themselves unemployed and unable to find work, Gov. David Paterson on Monday announced that he has submitted legislation that would allow the state to access an estimated $645 million in additional federal aid for the unemployed.


It would extend to 72 weeks from the current 59 weeks the period New York residents could collect unemployment. That's especially significant now, Labor Department officials said, because more than 56,000 unemployed New Yorkers, including more than 1,900 in the Capital Region, will be exhausting their 59 weeks of benefits next month.

What's more, Paterson is threatening to lay off 8,700 state workers.

About 34,800 residents in the Capital Region were unemployed in February, according to the Labor Department. That's 10,700 more than were unemployed in February 2008 — and the highest since the state began keeping such records in 1990.

...