In office not three months, Gov. Cuomo already seems to have caught Albany Pol Disease. His latest symptom: a surely fever-induced view that New York’s unions can help forge a sound plan to lay off city teachers.
Someone call a doctor, quick.
City officials want to “make sure they lay off teachers that do the least damage to the existing system,” Cuomo said yesterday, after being asked about efforts to repeal the state’s potentially disastrous “Last in, first out” layoff law.
“That is a short-term issue that deals with an existing agreement that was collectively bargained,” Cuomo added.
He signaled his willingness to help the city with its short-term needs, but also seemed to be giving unions veto power — by invoking the phrase “collective bargaining” and stressing his eagerness to work with “the labor unions involved to see how we can be of assistance.”
Sounds like a case of Shelly Silver Exposure — that is, spending too much time in the vicinity of the union lapdog who runs the Assembly.
Most worrisome, Cuomo’s delirium about teachers unions came just a day after his call to close down the Indian Point nuclear-power plant. No doubt, he was fantasizing that New York could somehow replace, or do without, the 2,000 megawatts of electricity that the Westchester plant supplies.
Fact is, the teachers unions, like all unions, consider seniority rules a core issue — and won’t give them up easily. They’re not interested in any solution — long-term or short — that serves anyone’s interests but their own.
And if Cuomo thinks otherwise, well . . . he’s clearly suffering from delusions.
Moreover, as city Department of Education officials noted yesterday, “LIFO was not collectively bargained” — as Cuomo suggested it was.
Citing a recent Post story that detailed LIFO’s history, they called it “an unfair law that was passed in 1940 over the objections of Mayor [Fiorello] La Guardia.” They said only the Legislature and governor have “the power to help our kids and do away” with the law.
Perhaps we know what’s ailing the gov regarding LIFO: Cuomo has said he doesn’t want to deal with it until after his budget is passed — and he’s hoping to straddle the issue until then.
Fine. But meanwhile, he’d do well to remember: The teachers union exists to serve teachers — not students.
And every step he takes in their direction is a step away from helping kids.