By The Editors 11/08/11 6:30pm

opinion

Do-Over for Common Sense in Albany

Members of Albany’s second-largest public employees union, the Public Employees Federation, clearly had second thoughts about challenging Governor Cuomo over wage and benefit concessions. Mr. Cuomo said that if P.E.F. didn’t accept $450 million in concessions, he’d have no choice but to lay off 3,500 P.E.F. members.

At first, P.E.F. basically told the governor to do his worst. Perhaps members thought Mr. Cuomo was bluffing, which, if nothing else, shows that the union is not necessarily blessed with keen political insight. Mr. Cuomo was not bluffing. When that became clear, the P.E.F. basically ordered up a do-over. Members have now voted overwhelmingly in favor of the deal they rejected just over a month ago.

That’s good news for many people, but most of all for the 3,500 P.E.F. members whose jobs have been saved by the second thoughts of their brothers and sisters. Apparently there is something to be said about “solidarity forever,” after all. Read More

By The Editors 7/19/11 7:32pm

opinion

Albany Sets An Example

The leaders of another public employee union in New York have chosen sanity over mindless confrontation. Negotiators for the Public Employees Federation, the state’s second-largest union, recently agreed to a new five-year deal that will save taxpayers $400 million in wage and benefit reforms over the life of the contract. The deal comes on the Read More

By The Editors 4/19/11 11:02pm

Editorial

Governor, Stand Your Ground! No Raises for State Worker Unions

Governor Andrew Cuomo used a phrase the other day that ought to put a chill down the spine of every taxpayer. He said that the state was “functionally bankrupt.” The wording was not meant as a scare tactic. It was merely a statement of the obvious.

Unfortunately, not everybody got the point. Two of the Read More

By Staff 6/16/06 4:44pm

Green Gets PEF

Mark Green will receive the endorsement on Monday of the Public Employees Federation, we’re told.

It’s a pretty good endorsement: the union represents 54,000 professional, scientific, and technical state employees. Green started out last week with a similar boost when he received the endorsement of the politically influential union SEIU Local 32BJ.

- Jason Read More