Cuomo Warns Unions They Need A "Reality Adjustment"

Colby Hamilton at DNAinfo:

MIDTOWN — Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned the city’s municipal labor unions Tuesday that they should be prepared to signficantly manage expectations as they prepare to sit down and negotiate new contracts with soon-to-be-mayor Bill de Blasio.

While he praised the unions for their “superb” willingness to help the city during tight times in the past — most notably during the fiscal crisis of the 1970s — the governor said labor leaders need to be “realistic” in their demands amid the difficulties currently faced by the city.

“Going into the conversation, everyone needs a reality adjustment,” Cuomo said during an unrelated press conference at the Javits Center.

“The unions have understood that in the past and they've acted accordingly and my guess is that they will again.”

UFT members did not get the last 8% pattern raise.

The APPR teacher evaluation system and its ancillary rules have forced concessions from UFT members on ratings, observations, lesson planning, and work load.

This UFT member does NOT need a reality adjustment.

This UFT members needs the 8% raise he deserved as part of the old pattern and additional compensation for all the concessions made to APPR.

And there will be NO additional concessions in this contract to health care or pension, no additional days or time added.

This UFT member gave at the office already - that's the reality whether Sheriff Andy Cuomo cares to admit that or not.

Unions To Run Mayoral Candidate?

An intriguing idea:

The head of a union for 20,000 city workers says he may fight back against proposals to trim union pay and benefits by running for mayor in 2013.

Gregory Floyd, head of Teamsters Local 237, told the Daily News he's talking with other union heads and some business leaders about running as the candidate representing the poor and middle class. "What could create the opening is what's going on in Wisconsin," Floyd said. "It may be time for a labor candidate."

Floyd said pols from here to Wisconsin are trying to balance their budgets on hourly workers rather than the Wall Street investors and bankers whose recklessness caused the crash.

"We have not gotten our fair share, with the millionaire's tax being eliminated, CEOs escaping the tax burden and the entire financial crisis falling on working men and women," Floyd said.

Floyd, 48, would face a crowded field in 2013: Contenders include former Controller William Thompson, Rep. Anthony Weiner, Controller John Liu, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.

Given that big business owns so many of the names on the list of potential mayoral candidates, it would be nice to see somebody representing working and middle class people who wouldn't reflexively demonize union members.

Even Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal Finds Strong Support For Union Collective Bargaining Rights

The minions who work for Murdoch and Zuckerman like to say that Americans are sick and tired of the "gold-plated benefits" union members have and are ready to strip collective bargaining rights from public employees unions.

Today, the Wall Street Journal releases its own poll showing that is not so:

Americans strongly oppose efforts to strip unionized government workers of their rights to collectively bargain, even as they want public employees to contribute more money to their retirement and health-care benefits, the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows.

Eliminating collective bargaining rights for public-sector workers over health care, pensions or other benefits would be either “mostly unacceptable” or “totally unacceptable,” 62% of those surveyed said. Only 33% support such limits.

The results don’t bode well for Wisconsin’s newly elected Republican governor, Scott Walker, who is locked in a standoff with statehouse Democrats and unionized state workers over these rights. Many of the Republicans gearing up to take on President Barack Obama in 2012 have seized on the budget battle in Wisconsin, a crucial swing state, as evidence the country wants to dramatically scale back government spending.

...

Similarly, 77% of the 1,000 adults interviewed for the poll think unionized state and municipal employees should have the same rights as those union members who work for private companies.

Those are very strong numbers in support of the right of unionized workers in the public sector to collectively bargain and have the same rights as unionized workers in the private sector.

It's interesting how this fight in Wisconsin seems to be clarifying so much on union issues.

The CW from the asshats in the Beltway on the TV is that Americans hate unions and are ready to dispense with them.

But like most CW, it is bullshit through and through.

When even the Wall Street Journal poll shows this, I think you can say that we have incontrovertible data showing this is true.

Union Families Need To ONLY Support Politicians Who Support Union Workers

Via Political Wire, I see that if Wisconsin voters could do the 2010 election for governor all over again, Scott Walker wouldn't be sitting in the governor's mansion taking phone calls from phony David Kochs:

A new Public Policy Polling survey finds that if Wisconsin voters could do it over today they'd support Tom Barrett (D) over Gov. Scott Walker (R) by a seven point margin, 52% to 45%.

Key finding: "The difference between how folks would vote now and how they voted in November can almost all be attributed to shifts within union households. Voters who are not part of union households have barely shifted at all- they report having voted for Walker by 7 points last fall and they still say they would vote for Walker by a 4 point margin. But in households where there is a union member voters now say they'd go for Barrett by a 31 point margin, up quite a bit from the 14 point advantage they report having given him in November."

So clearly union members and their families supported the very guy who decided right after the election to screw them and bust their unions.

What the hell is wrong with union members that so many of them vote AGAINST their own economic self-interest?

The same thing happened in New Jersey where some union members voted for Chris Christie over Jon Corzine and helped give Christie the victory.

I wonder how they feel now that Christie has gotten famous making union members Public Enemy #1?

I know teacher colleagues of mine who voted for Bloomberg this THIRD time.

Yeah, bad enough the first two times, but how could any NYC teacher in his/her right mind vote for Bloomberg after all the school closures, the union bashing, the reduction of teacher rights and the datacation of the system?

Dunno, but a few did.

You can bet the corporatists do NOT vote against their self interests.

David Koch does not vote for Ralph Nader.

Mort Zuckerman didn't give Dennis Kucinich the nod back in 2008.

They vote for the guys who are going to help their bottom lines, not for the guys who are going to screw them.

But for some reason, some union members vote AGAINST their own economic self-interests and vote FOR the economic interests of the corporatists who are out to screw them.

This is INSANITY, pure and simple, and it MUST stop.

I duly hope the union people who voted for Scott Walker have made amends for their class sins by vowing to ONLY vote for their economic interests in the future.

Judging by the shift in polling for the state, it looks like they certainly would if they could when it comes to Scott Walker.