Labor's Wins, And One Loser

Last week's election results were generally good ones for public employees and their unions. The victories that gave Democrats majorities in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives - which were aided by heavy spending and get-out- the-vote efforts on behalf of party candidates by organized labor - reopen legislative channels that have been closed to the unions since Republicans took control of the Senate in 2002.

It is now possible that an increase in the Federal minimum wage can be achieved without linking it to a sharp cut in estate taxes, and that other pro-labor legislation can gain approval. That is no guarantee that it will be signed by President Bush, but the shift in power will force him to risk being seen as anti-labor on such bills at a time when his party no longer can count on the votes of moderate and conservative union members.

Statewide, unions will also benefit from the landslide victory of Eliot Spitzer and his replacement of George Pataki as Governor. Although Mr. Pataki sometimes could be helpful to public workers, particularly on pension matters, it was generally based on political considerations rather than a natural sympathy for labor causes. This meant that, if he believed there was political mileage in taking on the unions, he would do so even when it was clearly not in the public interest.

That attitude was seen not only in his resistance to a transit contract that more pragmatic officials such as Mayor Bloomberg and Mr. Spitzer have said made sense for the state to embrace, but in his dogged refusal to work out an agreement on increased school aid for New York City despite a series of court decisions in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case that made such an increase inevitable.

There is no reason to expect that Mr. Spitzer will open the floodgates wide for labor - he does not seem like the type, and while union support helped him, he probably could have won comfortably without it, running on his strong record as Attorney General. But he can be expected to do what's right in both the CFE case and in resolving the Transport Workers' Union Local 100 contract, and has said he will strive to reduce the animosity and mistrust between New York City Transit and its largest union.

State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes also believes that a Spitzer administration will give the unions fairer consideration in matters ranging from workplace safety to arbitrations.

If there was one disturbing note for labor on Election Day, it involved a State Senate race where the State AFL-CIO and some of its major affiliates decided to back an embattled Republican, Nicholas Spano, apparently as a favor to Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, who has been helpful on key union-supported bills.

Republican lawyers challenged the registration of roughly 6,000 voters in Mr. Spano's district, and on the day of the balloting, there were allegedly several instances of attempts at vote suppression or voter intimidation at polling places. A New York Times editorial writer reported seeing GOP poll-watchers, many wearing Yonkers Fire Department shirts and union caps, repeatedly challenging voters in a Police Athletic League gymnasium, creating a tumultuous atmosphere and delaying voting.

The disruptions didn't work; Mr. Spano, who had gained re-election by just 18 votes in his previous race against Andrea Stewart-Cousins, this time lost to her. But the resort to tactics that smack of the Old South 40 years ago was an ugly closing note to Mr. Spano's career, and should be reason for unhappiness on the part of supporters like Mr. Hughes and Local 1199 President Dennis Rivera, who represents precisely the sort of minority voters the Republican minions were harassing.

They probably won't have to deal with Mr. Spano again. They will, however, be dealing with Mr. Bruno, and they should impress upon him that if such tactics are not banished, they have the political muscle to ensure that the Republican majority in the Senate will be.