News From our Members

NYSUT Ad Campaign

Ad campaign combats proposed budget cuts
http://www.nysut.org/cps/rde/xchg/nysut/hs.xsl/budget_14503.htm

NYSUT K-12 Education Ad Campaign: State Budget 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkd8GJ66T1w

NYSUT Higher Education Ad Campaign: State Budget 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axR3jZ3cIXI

Top Labor Executive Leaves for Green Jobs Initiative

Chris Chafe, the executive director of the Change to Win labor federation, is leaving to his post at the end of the month to launch a new clean economy business and marketing initiative.

The departure of Chafe, a leading light of the labor movement, comes at a time when labor, frustrated by the pace of change in Washington, is looking for non-traditional allies and new opportunities to grow their ranks in the global economy.

Chafe said his enterprise will “try to create a more integrated job-creating climate-capturing return-generating process that brings all of the incumbent assets from labor, business and environmental leaders into a common planning process so we can capture jobs and capture climate goals.”

Chafe’s tenure at Change to Win, which represents 5.5 million workers across five unions, was marked by political successes. But the transfer into power has been shaky, and labor has yet to accomplish several critical goals: the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, or card check, to speed organizing is delayed indefinitely. Health care reform, a top labor priority, is stalled; key labor-friendly nominees to government jobs have been held up. And unions continue to leak members. Talks between the Change to Win unions and the AFL-CIO umbrella, which is holding its annual meeting in Florida this week, about reintegration have broken down. Within Change to Win, a nasty split within the UniteHere union led to that group’s disaffiliation.

“Our affiliates continue to develop greater capacity through our strategic organizing center in the last few years. When you hear about new growth gains, two of our affiliates are increasingly in the story — UFCW and the Teamsters,” he said. He noted that CTW affiliates “working with other labor allies, brought the Obama administration into power and are working very strategically on how to recover from the Bush executive branch’s degradation of capacity to rebuilt and restructure and provide vision and focus for the federal government.”

He points to the union federation’s work to adopt a procurement approach throughout government that benefits labor unions — 1 in 8 American workers are affected in some form or another by the government’s procurement process. The Daily Caller reported recently that the government might adopt a “High Road Contracting Policy” that would give bidding preferences to companies that pay workers a “living wage” — a way of pushing more federal contracts to labor unions, whose workers generally are paid above that threshold. The idea is to incentivize companies to pay their workers better, although the approach would cost the government more money. As of 2009, 12.3% of Americans were represented by a labor union, which much higher public sector participation than private, and much higher density in teaching, nursing and security guard occupations. More than 37% of state, local and federal government employees are union members.

Another CTW success: the Teamsters’ alliance with environmental groups to reduce pollution at ports, which the New York Times highlighted as a “blue-green” coalition success story last week.

“The new initiative I am launching is an outgrowth of the strong clean economy organizing work that CTW has done in both the Ports campaign and the [Laborers] Home Performance campaign, the latter offering new models for how unions can be an essential part of the solution for workforce development, financing, and policy structures at the local, state, and national level as new industries and jobs are created,” Chafe said.
It is not affiliated with any union but will be open to all, he said. He was not able to provide details about who would fund or staff his new group.

To the degree of inertia now slowing the movement itself, Chafe says he is optimistic: “The 2008 cycle provided and the labor movement and our allies with an enormous show of capacity and strength and vitality and while there is no shortage of frustration the degree of achievement we;’d hope to see develop on our core agenda. We have to take as a lesson we’ve got to keep campaign.”

The transition from campaign to governing “is certainly an ongoing learning experience.”

Before joining Change to Win, Chafe was senior labor adviser to the Edwards presidential campaign. He was chief of staff of the UniteHere union, and served as Bruce Raynor’s executive assistant and political lead at Unite. He began his career organizing textile unions in the Southwest.

Fiscal Policy Institute Update – February 2010

NEW YORK STATE BUDGET

In early February, in both Albany and New York City, the Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI) presented a detailed briefing on New York State’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook for 2010-11.

In cooperation with New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, FPI will be presenting budget briefings in Rochester on March 1, Elmira on March 2, and Poughkeepsie on March 3. For details on these and other upcoming presentations, check the FPI events page.

FPI also worked with New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness and the other members of the Better Choice Budget Campaign to develop a menu of revenue-raising and cost-cutting options for the Governor and the Legislature to consider as they work to adopt a balanced budget for 2010-2011.

The Fiscal Policy Institute’s Deputy Director and Chief Economist James Parrott and FPI Senior Fiscal Policy Analyst Carolyn Boldiston both testified at the joint legislative hearings on the Governor’s 2010-2011 Executive Budget proposal. James testified at the Economic Development budget hearing and Carolyn presented testimony at the Human Services budget hearing.

NEW YORK CITY BUDGET

With support from New York Community Trust, FPI is now monitoring and analyzing the New York City budget. On February 9, as part of this effort, FPI presented a briefing on the mayor’s preliminary budget for FY 2011. The briefing examined the Mayor’s proposed budget cuts for this year and next year, his contingency cuts related to reductions in the Governor’s proposed state budget, and options for a more balanced approach to dealing with City budget pressures.

THE GREAT RECESSION IN NEW YORK

In November, FPI released A Tale of Two Recessions: While Wall Street recovers, New York City’s Main Street economy remains mired in the Great Recession and followed up in December with a report that analyzed unemployment by neighborhood, race, and ethnicity in New York City. That report’s estimates were used by both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times as the basis for interactive maps that are posted on their websites.

FPI Research Associate Michele Mattingly will discuss the urgent need for job creation at two town hall meetings convened by Representative Carolyn Maloney in New York City on March 6 and 7. For details, check the FPI events page.

IMMIGRATION AND THE ECONOMY

FPI analyzed the contribution of immigrants to the economies of the nation’s 25 largest metropolitan areas in Immigrants and the Economy, released this past November. This was the second major report by FPI’s Immigration Research Initiative, directed by senior fellow David Dyssegaard Kallick. Funding was provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and 32BJ SEIU. The report was prominently cited in a New York Daily News editorial, The Boon of Immigration, and garnered attention in news outlets across the country. News coverage can be found on FPI’s immigration web page.

STIMULUS FUNDS: GOOD FOR STATES, LOCAL GOVERNMENTS AND FAMILIES

Several components of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) have been critical in addressing state budget gaps and in providing assistance to the unemployed and other vulnerable populations. FPI has sought to quantify ARRA benefits for New York State and New York City and for individual New Yorkers in its State of Working New York 2009 report, in a column in the Gotham Gazette, and its recent state and city budget briefing books. Together with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, FPI released data in December showing that the ARRA helped keep more than 400,000 New Yorkers out of poverty in 2009.

HUMAN SERVICES

In testimony presented to the joint legislative hearing on the Human Services proposals in the Governor’s 2010-2011 Executive Budget proposal, FPI senior fiscal policy analyst Carolyn Boldiston examined Temporary Assistance to Needed Families (TANF) funding and spending in New York as well as issues relating to child care subsidies. Last summer, Carolyn was the lead author on a series of briefs that looked into the rules governing the new TANF Emergency Contingency Fund (ECF) that was created by the ARRA, reviewed New York’s experience with the pre-ARRA TANF Contingency Fund, and explored the situations under which New York may qualify for ECF funds.

LABOR PRACTICES

Building on FPI’s earlier research regarding the increasing tendency for unscrupulous employers to employ workers off the books or as so-called independent contractors, James Parrott testified before the labor committees of both the Assembly and Senate in January on the fiscal costs to the state of unlawful labor practices.

The Fiscal Policy Institute is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit research and education organization committed to improving public policies and private practices to better the economic and social conditions of all New Yorkers. Founded in 1991, FPI works to create a strong economy in which prosperity is broadly shared.

PEF President sets record straight at hearing on work force issues

Albany – The president of the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) testified today before the state Assembly Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees on work force issues setting the record straight on the size of the state work force and how it affects state spending. PEF President Kenneth Brynien also laid out a detailed plan for how the state can save hundreds of millions of dollars without eliminating jobs and services.

“There has been no growth in the size of the state work force, yet the proposed budget is striking, once again, at the public servants who deliver vital services,” Brynien said. “If the proposed budget is enacted, the state work force will be the same size it was 10 years ago and more than 15,000 positions fewer than in 1994, despite an increased need for state services,” Brynien said.

Brynien pointed out the budget proposal includes a $250 million cut in the salary and benefits of state employees while agencies continue to increase spending on private consultants that already cost more than state employees.

“New York State continues to pay thousands of consultants performing professional services an average of $160,719 annually. That’s 62 percent more than it cost to have state employees do similar work, including the cost of their benefits,” Brynien testified.

Brynien also said the proposal to eliminate salary increases and to lag pay violate negotiated labor agreements, noting contracts negotiated in good faith must be honored.

PEF proposed ways to achieve the work force savings identified in the Executive Budget proposal, but without the negative effects that would come from cutting state services, and still honoring the state’s contractual commitments to its employees.

“This can be achieved by: instituting a consultant-reduction plan to save $656 million over the next three years; expanding the voluntary severance program; instituting a Workplace Injury Reduction Program to reduce workers compensation costs; and reducing overtime costs by 60 percent by hiring entry-level state employees for a savings of $33.5 million annually,” Brynien said.

PEF is the state’s second-largest state-employee union, representing 58,000 professional, scientific and technical employees.

Paterson Gives St. Vincent’s Hospital Another Loan

By Anemona Hartocollis

Gov. David A. Paterson provided the second cash infusion in a week Sunday to St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan in Greenwich Village, but said concessions from unions and physicians would be needed to keep the hospital open.

The governor said Sunday that after “hours of intensive discussions and calls between all parties” the state had agreed to put up $3 million and creditors another $3 million to keep the hospital going temporarily.

It was not clear how long the cash would last, and Mr. Paterson challenged other stakeholders to help as well.

The 160-year-old hospital is $700 million in debt and has stopped accepting new outpatients to its well-known H.I.V. and community health programs because it may be forced to close.

The governor said in a statement that saving St. Vincent’s would require “shared sacrifice,” adding: “We believe this assistance, if combined with assistance from the sponsors, concessions from the unions, management and physicians, cost-cutting actions and aggressive cash management will allow St. Vincent’s Medical Center the time needed to develop short-term and long-term plans for the future.”

The loan came on the heels of an $8 million loan from the state and the hospital’s main creditors, GE Capital and TD Bank, that was announced last Tuesday. The first loan was used for payroll and supplies and was exhausted almost immediately, in part because vendors are now demanding cash in advance or on delivery, hospital officials said.

City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, state and federal elected officials, and union leaders have become part of a group working with the governor and the state health department to save the hospital.

But so far, neither the city, the federal government nor the unions have proposed to contribute to the state’s efforts to keep the hospital going until a more permanent solution can be found. A spokeswoman for the hospital workers’ union, Local 1199 of the S.E.I.U., declined to comment Sunday evening.

As a political matter, wage concessions are sometimes more damaging to unions than layoffs, because laid-off workers do not vote in union elections while those whose salaries have been cut do.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has taken a neutral, almost philosophical approach to the hospital’s plight. On Friday, he said in his weekly radio program that he doubted the hospital could stay open longer than six months, but he did not offer any help.

“People want to keep it open; that would be great if you could find a way to do it,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “I will say I find it hard to see how you can do that. You might be able to get it through another six months or something. The governor’s giving them a loan to pay their employees for another month, but unless you can really come up with a business model that works, which is difficult in the best of times for the best of hospitals, it’s a really tough proposition to come up with.”