July 10, 2008

Paterson vetoes discipline bill

This site recently posed the question: "Will Governor David Paterson say "yes" to a union-giveaway that Governors Eliot Spitzer, George Pataki and Mario Cuomo vetoed eight times?"

The answer is now in--and it's "no." This week, Paterson became the fourth governor to veto a measure that would have made it harder for state agencies and local governments to fire unionized employees. It would have required them to hire an independent hearing officer to listen to evidence and render the final decision on whether to fire a worker. (More background here.)

"This bill would significantly change public employee discipline and would undo hundreds of collective bargaining agreements," the governor explained .

Paterson also vetoed two binding arbitration bills--while signing a third. He rejected:

A1804a, which would extend binding arbitration to safety and security officers at the state Office of Mental Health, Department of Health and Office of Mental Retardation; and

A9719, which would extend binding arbitration to security hospital treatment officers.

His reason for each veto:

This bill represents a significant expansion of binding arbitration, and would impose a significant constraint on the executive's control over the collective bargaining process.

But the governor's attitude on public labor issues was inconsistent in this round of post-session bill signings and vetoes. As the New York Times reported Wednesday, the governor "did sign similar [labor] bills into law over the objections of his own budget office, including one that allows [link] for binding arbitration to resolve contract negotiations with the Suffolk County park police."

Binding arbitration has promoted a "salary surge" among police and firefighters in New York, for reasons explained in the Empire Center'sTaylor Made report. Small wonder, then, that more bargaining units are seeking to compel arbitration of their disputes.

(NOTE: Bill links here go to Assembly web site, which has not been updated to show gubernatorial chapters or vetoes.)

Posted by Lise Bang-Jensen

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