Round Two: Contract Negotiations with State’s Biggest Public Employee Unions Begin

"Contentious" and "difficult" don’t begin to describe the Cuomo administration’s negotiations with the state employees unions in 2011.

Nationally, labor felt under attack after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s efforts to strip collective bargaining rights from unions in his state. And with the country still recovering from a recession, there wasn’t much money to be handed out, even in traditionally labor-friendly New York.

In the end, the state’s two largest public employees unions, the Civil Service Employees Association and the Public Employees Federation, ended up striking deals with the Cuomo administration, making large concessions and establishing a narrative that the new governor was no friend to these labor unions.

"The first round of negotiations were extremely contentious, obviously, with the unions having to accept ‘zeros’ and also reductions in the workforce. If government is broke, it’s very hard to deal with an employer that has no money," said Ed Draves, a labor lobbyist for Bolton St. Johns. "The economic climate is better now than it was the last round of negotiations."

Now both the PEF and CSEA are about to enter into contract negotiations with the Cuomo administration—PEF’s contract expired in April, and CSEA’s expires next year—with the economic landscape looking much different than four years ago. While there may be more money to go around, the negotiations are likely to still be complicated.

CSEA’s Communications Director Stephen Madarasz admits as much, saying even though there are ongoing conversations between state officials and the unions, the very nature of the talks leads to conflict.

"State unions of New York and the governor of New York have a very different dynamic than other kinds of labor management relations, largely because the governor is the boss," Madarasz said. "For CSEA, the relationship with the governor is very dynamic and we’ve been around for 105 years now and we’ve had a dynamic relationship with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Nelson Rockefeller and Mario Cuomo and even Paterson. And Andrew Cuomo is just the latest in succession of governors."

E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, agrees that the upcoming talks will likely be as complicated as they have been in the past, even with the improved economy.

"[Cuomo’s] financial plan is tight," McMahon said. "He’s pledged to hold the net spending increase at 2 percent a year for the rest of his term and because the budget is absolutely dominated by school aid and Medicaid, it doesn’t leave a lot of room for anything else. Happy days are not here again. There isn’t a huge pot of money out there to give them raises from."

McMahon said it will be interesting to see how the new leadership at PEF—which changed when former President Ken Brynien was ousted by members after the last contract negotiations and replaced by Susan Kent—will handle the upcoming negotiations.

"These unions have never been as powerful in negotiations as local unions are, like the New York City union," McMahon said. "So what kind of contract do they intend to negotiate when the governor essentially always has the union over a barrel?"

The Cuomo administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

There is one obvious difference heading into this year’s round of talks that Draves says shouldn’t be overlooked.

"Back then (in 2011) you were going into the negotiations without any interactions—that’s different too," Draves said. "The state and the current union leadership know each other better than they did back then. I think … it will help in certain cases and it hurts in some cases. But the difference now is both are known quantities."