Cuomo's Vengeance Against State Workers Union Hits A Snag

Amidst all the dark news emanating from Albany these days comes a little bit of good news:

The Cuomo administration's push to move an estimated 2,500 unionized state workers into nonunion "management/confidential" status has hit an early snag.

The state's Public Employment Relations Board, which would approve or deny the move, said the state needs to identify which individuals they want to reclassify as well as whether they would be put in management or confidential jobs.

Management people are generally supervisors or upper-level positions, while confidential jobs can be high-level, but they can also cover positions such as clerks or administrative assistants who have access to sensitive information or documents such as personnel files.

The 54,000-member Public Employees Federation, the union from which the administration is trying to reclassify workers, said it was encouraged that the application was sent back to the Governor's Office of Employee Relations for more details.

"This is encouraging news as it shows that PERB is firm in holding GOER to the requirements that an employer's application must contain more than a mere conclusory statement that positions, which have been in PEF for decades, should now be management-confidential," PEF President Susan Kent said in a prepared statement on Monday.

In short, PERB is not rolling over at the mere mention of Governor Cuomo's desire to move nearly 5% of PEF's membership to nonunion "management/confidential" status.

Let's remember that we can be successful fighting this governor as he plans to "break" teachers and the public school system this next term - IF we have union leadership looking to actually win it.

Some teachers understandably are dubious that the union leadership will stand up effectively.

I'll have more about that later.