ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Union leaders say their members are united
in opposition to making contract concessions to avoid layoffs.
The leaders of the Public Employees Federation and Civil Service
Employees Association say only a few members agreed with Gov. David
Paterson's plea to give up a 3 percent raise to avoid as many at
8,900 layoffs.
The union leaders say most members are galvanized by Paterson's
latest plea and his decision last week to exempt non-unionized
managers from layoffs. Paterson did, however, suspend managers' 3
percent raises for a year to help address a fiscal crisis.
Paterson has been trying to extract some concessions to deal
with billions of dollars of deficits, but says the union leaders
have refused to even make counter offers that involved the payrolls
of their members.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)