State Workers to Paterson: Don't Save on Our Backs

The Chief-Leader/Adrienne Haywood-James 'STOP, THE JOB YOU SAVE MAY BE YOUR OWN': Central Labor Council Executive Director Ed Ott says Governor Paterson should be mindful when threatening layoffs that they would affect employees who represent his voting base, 'and if your base stays in bed, you will have a different job yourself.'

Yvonne McNeil, a specialist with the Office of Children and Family Services, worries daily about the threat by Governor Paterson of 8,700 state layoffs. She worries about what would happen after six months when she estimates her savings would run out. She thinks about her five children who are approaching college age, one of whom switched to a community college recently to save money. She worries about the house that she is certain she would lose.

"What I don't understand is how they are going to save money if I have to go on public assistance," she said.

Saying No to Givebacks

Ms. McNeil joined labor leaders and hundreds of workers from the Civil Service Employees Association and the Public Employees Federation outside the Governor's Manhattan office April 30 to deliver a personal message to him that the state workforce would not defer a 3-percent raise to prevent widespread layoffs.

The Chief-Leader/Adrienne Haywood-James 'ALREADY FEELING THE SHORTAGE OF STAFF: Crispin Booker, a Mental Health Therapy Aide at Kingsboro Psychiatric Center, dreads the prospect of more than 1,000 layoffs in the system, saying patients already are harder to control because of previous staff cuts.

 

 

PEF President Kenneth Brynien, who took to the stage at noon, signed a letter to Mr. Paterson that outlined other options the Governor could consider which he said would save the state $775 million over two years. He said the state could reduce the use of consultants for a savings of $315 million, cut $320 million in overtime costs and expand a voluntary reduction in work schedules to save $140 million.

Mr. Paterson has sought $481 million in labor savings this fiscal year to help balance a widening budget gap.

Mr. Brynien said in the letter that to eliminate the pay raises and institute lag pay would take away $2,800 in income in 2009 per state worker. And, because the state routinely faces budget deficits, this would create a dangerous precedent so that contracts could be routinely opened.

In an effort to prevent that, PEF Vice President Pat Baker and Manhattan local leader Vernetta Chesimard walked across Third Avenue to deliver the letter as the crowd chanted, "You've got mail."

'Take Fingers Out of Your Ears'

"We are all here together to tell the Governor to take his fingers out of his ears and listen to us," Mr. Brynien said.

"Senator Schumer has said publicly that layoffs would be bad for the economy. Is the Governor listening to him?" he called.

"No!" the crowd shouted.

"President Obama has said that Federal stimulus monies should be used to create jobs and avoid layoffs. Is the Governor listening to the President?"

"No!" the crowd chanted.

"We want the Governor to listen to somebody."

Mr. Brynien was joined by a host of labor leaders including Ed Ott, Executive Director of the AFL-CIO New York City Central Labor Council, and State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes.

A Political Equation

Mr. Ott said Mr. Paterson was making a fatal mistake. "I will remind him that next year there is another election. I will remind him that this is your base and if your base stays in bed, you will have a different job yourself. I call upon the Governor not to lay himself off."

"No layoffs, cut the waste," the crowd chanted in refrain.

Mr. Hughes said, "Now Governor let me tell you this: our message today is that there are options, that layoffs don't work. They don't work for the community, they don't work for the state, they don't work for our families. We are here to serve the state of New York and there are options because without all of you there is no state of New York."

Mr. Paterson released this year's enacted budget two days prior to the protest. The budget still includes the projected $481-million savings from labor through layoffs to close what became a $20.1-billion deficit through 2010. Spending was reduced $6.5 billion as the STAR housing rebate program was eliminated. Income tax was raised, among other things to raise $5.4 billion. The state is also counting on $6.2 billion in Federal aid and another $2 billion in one-time savings to close the deficit.

By 2012, however, the state deficit is projected to skyrocket to $13.7 billion.

Cites Past Hardships

The difficult numbers for the state did not seem to matter to Lester Crockett, CSEA Metropolitan Region Executive Vice President, who said, "We need the public to understand that in 1993 and 1994, when the state was doing good, we took zeroes and they didn't give us anything back."

Chanting "cut the waste, not the workers," union members like Crispin Booker, a Mental Health Therapy Aide at Kingsboro Psychiatric Center, cheered. His agency faces a cut of 1,054 workers, and Mr. Booker echoed a common refrain among mentalhealth workers that more cuts could be potentially dangerous because the facilities are operating with fewer staff to begin with.

Mr. Booker, in fact, was attacked recently by a patient in a situation he said could have been averted if there were more aides working. Mr. Booker was flung against a glass window by an angry patient and hit his head extremely hard. "If you have more workers, the patients don't tend to act up," he said. "You can address it immediately."

Manuelita Clemente, head of the Parole workers local, similarly said that her agency could not absorb the 1,200-worker staffing cuts proposed by the Governor. "The people that come in here left good jobs to join Parole," she said. "Now you're going to lay them off?"

Save Now, Pay More Later

Her colleague, Mike Lesser, stressed that for every penny the state saves in cutting mental-health or parole services, it would lose a dollar in the form of increased jail spending after those individuals entered the penal system.

Sam Koroma, who works at Manhattan Psychiatric Center, said he has already seen the beginning of the reentry cycle Mr. Lesser talked about. Since the closing of the drug and alcohol program at the center, Mr. Koroma said he has seen several of the patients back on the streets using. "That creates a very adverse situation," he said.

The closing of the treatment program has also been bad for the morale of the staff that remains because state jobs, once a bastion of stability, are now in jeopardy. "Everybody is on edge because they don't know what the Governor is going to do," he said. "Anxiety is high."

Ms. McNeil, who has worked with OCFS for 9 ½ years, has felt that anxiety is recent months like most state workers, but it is especially troubling because one of the reasons she works for the state is for the job security it once promised. "When you take a job, it is a long-term, life-time commitment," she said. "I never thought of changing jobs. This is what I wanted to do."