Union officials here have portrayed their efforts against Mr. Walker as a battle for the middle class everywhere. This, of course, is absurd: Unions want to oust Mr. Walker because he had the nerve to implement limited pension reforms (see above) for public workers. Oh, and he also supported a measure that prevented public employee unions from automatically collecting dues from members’ paychecks.

So the battle is not about the preservation of the middle class. If anything, the middle class is suffering because of the lavish benefits that public employee unions extract from government revenues.

The battle is between a political figure who is trying to regain some element of control over his state’s finances, and public employee unions who believe that it still is 1965 and that taxpayers owe public employees gold-plated health benefits and a fully funded retirement after 20 or 25 years of service. These sorts of benefits are not available to the average middle-class resident of Wisconsin.

New York’s unions certainly have something to gain if Mr. Walker is ousted. It’s no wonder that they are investing resources in Wisconsin.

If they prevail, you can expect a new offensive against the treasuries of New York in the coming year.

Leaders of Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union won’t say whether or not—or when—they will walk off the jobs. The local’s president, Michael Cordiello, won’t rule out the possibility, but insisted that the union has no plans for such an action. City Hall has made it clear that it cannot offer the job guarantees that the union is seeking. (The drivers work for private companies whose work force is unionized. Companies have said they may go to court to block a strike.)

Let’s be clear about what’s at stake: the union wants seniority-based job protections for drivers who transport preschool students in special education classes. At the city’s urging, Governor Cuomo two months ago vetoed a bill that would have extended those protections—the governor noted that the State Court of Appeals ruled that such protections would drive up the cost of transportation and would have a chilling effect on competition.

City Hall officials have supported those protections in the past, not because they thought the rules were fair, but because they feared the very sort of job action that seems imminent. But City Hall changed its position over the summer, and rightfully so.

The union is now in the position of arguing that the rights of school children, including those in special education class, are less important than work rules that are clearly outdated, inefficient and simply wrong. It would be interesting to hear union officials make that case.

City Hall has been quick to respond to and prepare for a strike that Mayor Bloomberg described as both “illegal” and “outrageous.” The Department of Education spent more than $1 million on Metrocards, which will be handed out to students and parents in case there is no bus service. The agency also has prepared a set of rules and guidelines in the event of a strike. For example, students would not be charged with tardiness if they arrive in school up to two hours late.

The city’s high-profile preparations for a strike may cause the union to think twice about moving forward with a foolish job action in defense of indefensible work rules. Public-employee unions have shown that common sense can, on occasion, prevail in labor-management relations. Perhaps the private-sector drivers will take notice.

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.

P.E.F. members, like those of the state’s largest public employees union, the Civil Service Employees Association, will receive no raises for three years and will have to pay more of their health insurance costs. C.S.E.A. members ratified a similar deal over the summer in exchange for no layoffs. Now the P.E.F. has followed suit, although the process has not been quite as smooth as it was with the C.S.E.A.

In any case, once again the contrast between Albany and Trenton (and other state capitals, like Madison, Wis.) is striking. New Jersey politics remains scarred by the bitter confrontation between public employees unions and Governor Christie over pension and benefit reforms enacted earlier this year. While nobody was expecting any dramatic changes in the state’s legislative elections on Nov. 8, the fall campaign was marked by bitter union attacks not only on Mr. Christie but on key Democrats who helped the Republican governor enact the changes.

Mr. Cuomo has treated his state’s work force with far more delicacy than Mr. Christie has. There has been no demonization of public employees, no slurs against their competency and work ethic. As a result, Mr. Cuomo has gotten what the state as a whole needs without the drama and bitterness that has characterized belt-tightening in other states.

That speaks well of the governor, for sure. But it also speaks well of New York’s public employees as well.

“Going once!” the bald man yelled. “GOING TWICE! OHHHHH IT’S GONEEEEE!!!”

On both sides of them long lines of demonstrators walked up and down York Avenue, wearing purple union shirts, blowing whistles and holding signs — some with placards that designated them as Sotheby’s employees. There were around 50 demonstrators in total, and judging by the sound they made as they marched, the whistling to non-whistling ratio was something like 49:1.

A bystander pointed out that they couldn’t have picked a worse time to strike, since it was August and Sotheby’s really has very little use for them this month. But this was not actually a strike, it was a lock-out. Sotheby’s, playing hardball in their renegotiation of the union contract, handed out letters on Friday telling the 43 Teamsters Local 814 workers not to come into work on Monday.

Around the corner, Local 814 President Jason Ide, ran down the litany of indignities his art handlers had suffered at the hands of the Sotheby’s higher-ups.

“They brought in Jackson Lewis LLC for the negotiations; last time they had Morgan Lewis, which I know doesn’t sound like a big difference but it is.” Scruffy-faced and in a neat suit, the 30-year-old Mr. Ide ticked off the union's issues on his fingers. “They’re trying to shorten the work week to 36 hours, which is an average of 2.5 hours per week, really harsh overtime cuts, they’re trying to replace us skilled workers with temporary guys, uh what else. Oh! This is really weird — I didn’t even know this was legal — they wanted us to waive our rights to report any legal violations on their part. As an individual you can’t file violations through the union, which is how we do things. Apparently they just want us not to be able to file them at all.”

For Mr. Ide the ignominy clearly hit close to home. He worked as an art handler at Sotheby’s for six years, and he said that he was a fully qualified preparator by the time he left.

“You can take that experience to a museum,” he said. “That’s why I like this job. But they’re trying to give it to temporary people, and deprive workers of this opportunity.”

A self-described “fighting Irish” handler of seven years,  Mark Keenan said the job had opened up whole new worlds for him.

“Jeff Koons,” Mr. Keenan said, when asked about his favorite artists. “Frank Stella, I’ve been in here until 2 o’clock in the morning installing some of his more intricate sculptures. I love it, I wouldn’t have it any other way.” He cocked his head in the direction of the building. “I shudder to think what’s happening in there now. It’s a complicated job. I’m still learning it, it takes time to learn.”

“We take care of Rembrandts, van Goghs and Picassos,” Mr. Ide yelled above the crowd during a speech just outside the entrance. “We’re highly trained. I’m convinced that if we stay out here and we fight and we let people know what’s happening here, we will prevail.”

After the crowd stopped shouting his first name, the workers resumed marching. Some returned to the incoming docks, where a red garbage truck was backing in.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” shouted a man in a bucket hat. “Can’t do that, bro! You can’t do that!”

“Scab!” yelled another, and threw a whistle in his mouth. He whistled hard, with his body, as if he was trying to point the sound into the building, where the driver was loading a Dumpster onto the back of the truck. The whistler’s two young sons, one in a cast, began tooting on their own noise-makers, eyebrows arched.

Blonde and sharp, Sandra Pope, currently running for Teamsters General president, approached the truck with Mr. Ide in a huff. She eyed the name of the company and began dialing the number below it. “It’s 813,” she said.

Mr. Ide shook his head. He was familiar with the shop, which is split between union and non-union workers.

“Oh really,” Ms. Pope said, ending the call.

“Looks like they sent a non-union worker today,” Mr. Ide told us, walking away from the truck with the workers to rejoin the march out front.

The Observer left without saying goodbye to Mr. Ide. He was otherwise engaged, busy chatting with four cops who were curious about how late the whistles would be going. Late, we heard him explain as we hailed a cab. Very late.

Photos by Andrew Russeth

Members of the P.E.F. will get job protection in exchange for painful but necessary concessions. Union members will receive no raises for three years (they will get 2 percent increases in the fourth and fifth years) and will have to take nine unpaid days off over the next two years. In addition, they will have to contribute more toward their health insurance, enough to save the state more than $50 million a year.

No union leader relishes these kinds of negotiations. Neither, by the way, do most politicians—after all, they live to please people, not to make them surly and resentful. But given the state’s perilous finances, there are few alternatives. The union leaders could have walked away from the table and called for demonstrations outside the state capitol. They could have launched a campaign against the governor. They could have played the class card.

Fortunately for the state, they did none of those things. The P.E.F.’s president, Kenneth Brynien, made it clear that he wanted to save the jobs of his members.  He understood that layoffs would be disastrous—the stubbornly high jobless rate does not augur well for any job-seeker in the near future. Rather than rely on bluster and threats, Mr. Brynien cut a deal that will make sure that none of his 55,000 colleagues is forced to the unemployment line. That is a laudable achievement for which his members and the taxpayers of New York should be grateful.

The deal still requires approval from the rank and file. With any luck, the P.E.F.’s members will be as reasonable as their leaders were at the bargaining table. If so, they, too, deserve credit in the ongoing project to restore the Empire State to fiscal stability.

Tough talks still await. Governor Cuomo promises to tackle yet another difficult issue: pension reform for state and city workers. The old defined-benefits model, with pensions based on salaries pumped up by extra overtime, is out of date and, frankly, grossly unfair to taxpayers and to those workers who refuse to game the system.

That fight figures to be far more difficult than this summer’s contract talks. But union leaders and Mr. Cuomo are off to a very positive start.

Passage of gay marriage returned the state to its historic (but lately all-but-forgotten) role as a leader in progressive social and cultural change. The rest of the nation, indeed the rest of the world, took notice as Albany’s often-derided legislators publicly wrestled with their consciences and, in the case of several, defied their constituents in service to equality and civil rights. It was a rare moment of dignity amid the usual gritty deal-making of state politics.

Credit goes to Governor Andrew Cuomo for appealing to the better angels of his legislative colleagues, to the advocates in both public and private life who saw marriage equality as a civil-rights issue for the 21st century, and to those legislators, especially in the State Senate’s Republican caucus, who placed justice ahead of politics. Some careers may end as a result of that vote, but history will remember fondly their votes and their courage.

If gay marriage were the only good news out of Albany this spring, it would still have been remembered as an historic legislative session. But there was another remarkable achievement that required no shortage of will and courage on the part of several key players—the welcome agreement between Mr. Cuomo and the state’s largest public employees union on wage and benefits concessions. Members of the Civil Service Employees Association will see their wages frozen for three years and will pay more for their generous health benefits. As a result, the state will save some $1.6 billion over the next five years.

Mr. Cuomo again deserves credit for winning the union’s support without the confrontational rhetoric that has marked labor-management relations in New Jersey and Connecticut. But Mr. Cuomo obviously could not have negotiated these necessary deals alone. C.S.E.A. president Danny Donohue understood that the state had little choice but to ask for some sacrifices from its workers. “These are not ordinary times,” Mr. Donohue said.

Not many labor leaders have had the courage to recognize just how dire things really are. Mr. Donohue chose cooperation rather than confrontation. With any luck, his colleagues in another large union, the Public Employees Federation, will follow suit, because times are not going to get much better any time soon.

Closer to home, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Council Speaker Christine Quinn and her Council colleagues came to agreement on a new budget that avoided the closure of 20 fire companies, the lay-off of some 4,000 teachers and other potentially painful cuts in services and personnel. As was the case in Albany, the budget hearings and negotiations were marked by a spirit of urgency and cooperation, rather than pointless pandering.

While New Yorkers have reason to take some measure of pride (for a change) in local politics, nobody should believe that the state and city have clear sailing ahead. A number of Governor Cuomo’s campaign promises remain unrealized, including pension reform and the creation of a commission to devise a truly fair redistricting process in anticipation of next year’s congressional and legislative elections. Welcome though the achievements in Albany and City Hall are, they should be thought of as just the beginning of a new era of reform in New York.

For the moment, however, New Yorkers need only take a look at Hartford and Trenton to see how things might have been. Reason to give thanks, for sure.

But Walmart remains a pariah in the City Council. Its efforts to find a location in the five boroughs have met with unconscionable grandstanding from members willing to do the bidding of local unions, which despise Walmart and its nonunion labor force.

Undeterred, Walmart is reportedly once again scouting the city for a possible location. Some reports indicate that the company is looking at a site in Bensonhurst near Gravesend Bay. The local councilmember, Domenic Recchia Jr., has made it clear that he will do what he can to stop Walmart from moving into the neighborhood.

That’s unfortunate, although predictable. Council members clearly are more concerned about union support than they are in creating opportunities for constituents to save more than a little money on just about everything. What’s more, Walmart is a job creator—indeed, it is the nation’s largest private employer. Lots of teens and young adults are having a hard time finding work this summer. Unfortunately, none can apply to a local Walmart, because the Council has kept the retailer out of New York.

To the company’s credit, it hasn’t given up on New York City. Too bad the Council has given in to union pressure, at no small cost to ordinary New Yorkers.