The labor movement's monumental fight against Gov. Cuomo's Tier 6 pension proposal mitigated, but failed to prevent, a pension deal that significantly slashes benefits to new public employees.
"It is very simple: Those who chose this path are requiring the 99 percent to pay for the sins of the 1 percent," said NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi. "We thank those who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with organized labor and the hard-working middle class. This was an opportunity for every legislator to stand with labor and not pander to the 1 percent who are funding the non-stop attacks on labor. Sadly, not all understood that responsibility."
Here's NYSUT's statement on the deal.
The Senate and Assembly passed legislation creating Tier 6 in a marathon session that lasted all night. NYSUT leaders and staffers kept vigil, working to mitigate damage in concert with the AFL-CIO, which coordinated labor's pension defense.
Some of the worst features of the governor's original proposal were beaten back or softened in reaction to a furious and coordinated AFL-CIO campaign. The national AFL-CIO put out this statement condemning the legislation. Here's NYSUT's detailed analysis of the provisions of the new Tier 6 law. This setback is even more reason to redouble our efforts. Pallotta said: "We are coming in to the home stretch in our year-long campaign to turn around the devastating cuts of the last three years to schools, colleges and universities, and libraries. Our thanks go out to each and every one of you who have taken the time to advocate for the proper funding of public education."
On the budget front, our grassroots advocacy has already shown promising results. The Assembly and Senate have proposed one-house budgets that would redirect $200 million of the governor's proposed competitive grants to formula school aid. Both houses have proposed community colleges aid increases and partial restorations of vital aid to SUNY's teaching hospitals. We have momentum on the budget front and need to finish strong.