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Gov. Cuomo has drawn a line in the sand with the state’s second-largest public-employees union — saying he will lay off 3,500 workers if their membership doesn’t approve a bare-bones contract when it votes tomorrow, The Post has learned.
If the Public Employee Federation rejects the plan on the table, which is very likely, workers will receive their pink slips on Wednesday.
It would be the first large-scale work-force reduction since Cuomo took office in January and would show that he is willing to play hardball with unions in order to reduce state government spending.
The firings would save the state $80 million during the six months left in the current fiscal year, and twice that much in the fiscal year beginning April 1.
The firing letters have already been prepared and are ready for distribution.
“The state employees have their destiny in their own hands,’’ said state Operations Director Howard Glaser of tomorrow’s vote.
“There is no other option to layoffs if they fail to ratify the contract. The costs of the work force are unsustainable, and there’s no other option to layoffs if the PEF members fail to ratify the contract,” Glaser continued.
The pink slips would come shortly after the state’s largest union, the Civil Service Employees Association, approved in August a contract that’s virtually identical to the one Cuomo is offering the PEF.
The contract would only grant 2 percent increases in the fourth and fifth years and require increased health-care contributions.
While the leaders of the 56,000-member PEF have urged their members to ratify the contract, several dissident groups have sprung up to urge rejection, contending it provides no job security.
Aides to Cuomo say privately that they believe the vote, in which some 50,000 ballots are expected to be cast, could go either way.
The average compensation of a PEF member — salary plus benefits — costs the state over $100,000 a year.
Glaser’s office spent part of last week identifying the agencies where the jobs will be cut — with many coming in the Health, Mental Health, and Transportation departments — and drafting formal dismissal notices.
Cuomo, a Democrat, has until now enjoyed reasonably good relations with the state’s powerful public-employee unions despite his decision to close a projected $10 billion state budget gap with spending cuts and no new taxes.
If Cuomo fires thousands of state workers, those relations are expected to deteriorate and the governor’s reputation in national Democratic Party circles may suffer as well.
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A key architect of Republican Bob Turner’s upset victory in the race for Anthony Weiner’s congressional seat says five more Democratic seats are, thanks to President Obama’s declining popularity, ripe for the picking next year.
Topping the list, according to GOP pollster/strategist John McLaughlin, is the Suffolk County seat held by US Rep. Tim Bishop, who barely defeated Randy Altschuler, who had just survived a bitter GOP primary last year.
Altschuler plans to run again next year and is expected to have unified Republican support.
Others on McLaughlin’s target list include longtime Nassau County US Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, two-term US Rep. Bill Owens of the conservative-oriented North Country/Adirondack region, mid-Hudson US Rep. Maurice Hinchey and newly elected Buffalo-area US Rep. Kathy Hochul.