Talks May Prevent New York Layoffs

Some of your may remember our earlier coverage of the planned layoff of 3,496 county jobs in the State of New York. The layoff, which would affect some New York state counties disproportionately, was in response to the state unions failure to ratify the contract that the governor put forth. The union leaders objected to the terms of the agreement, citing the fact that the state and its workers had already negotiate a contract before the budget was released. This did not change the governors mind however.

The planned layoffs are currently underway. The pink slips went out last week. A higher number than expected of the layoffs are set to happen not at the state level, but at the county level. On the whole a total of 9,800 jobs will need to be lost and 3,496 of them are on the county level.

Now, there is hope on the horizon. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, released a statement that said he was open to the idea of changing things in order to keep people in their jobs. The change to the contract that he is talking about would actually involve shortening the length of the contract with the union. This shortening, along with some of the other concessions that have already been in discussion would allow the state to save the money that it needs without having to remove any of the union positions that have been outlined in the layoffs.

Will this second attempt at creating a workable contact work? Well that depends greatly on how the union members vote. The contract in question does include some major concessions on the part of the employees of the state. Some of the concessions that the state would require of their employees would include a wage freeze and higher costs for health care. While there are some other concessions required in order to get the contract ratified their details were not released at this time. They may encounter some other road bumps that could potentially hold up the negotiations.

Governor Cuomo said that the cuts in the first three years of the contract are critical if the state is going to be able to have a balanced budget.

In a statement given on Thursday the governor said that he would consider cutting out the last two years of the five-year contract. This would allow the union to sign the concessions without locking workers into a deal that may not be beneficial in the long term. The deal would allow the state and the workers to renegotiate the contact in three years, when the economy may have improved and more favorable terms for the workers could be reached. Though there is no guarantee of improvement in either the economy or the contract, the flexibility may be enough to keep these workers in their jobs for a few more years.

Currently, there is no word on how well the contract re-negotiations will go, or how long it will take for the state of New York and the union to come to an agreement that everyone can live with.