CSEA AND PEF FIGHT FURLOUGHS

Members of CSEA and PEF gather along Elmwood Ave.

in front of the Rochester Psychiatric Center in

Rochester, N.Y. to protest furloughs of state workers.

(photo by Bess Watts)

Rochester, N.Y.--  State workers held noontime rallies around the state to protest a plan by Gov. David A. Paterson that will furlough 100,000 government workers one day a week beginning May 17.

Legislative leaders have said they oppose the idea and that a furlough is illegal, but also say they have little choice but to pass the measure. The governor has included the furlough provision in an emergency budget bill that lawmakers need to pass today in order to keep the government running. The government has been operating on the emergency appropriation basis since the fiscal year began April 1 without a budget in place.

"We deserve what we have and we're not going to give any of it back," Mary Sullivan, executive vice president of the Civil Service Employees Association, told a couple thousand state workers who turned out in a park next to the state Capitol in Albany, N.Y.

Speakers at the Albany rally used fiery rhetoric against Paterson.  CSEA President Danny Donohue, who was greeted like a rock star by the state workers, said the governor is just creating more chaos that adds to an already tense political envirnonment.

Denis Hughes, president of the state AFL-CIO, told the state workers in Albany that Paterson's furlough idea is "an injustice to the men and women least able to handle this cut."

CSEA is planning swift federal court action to block the furloughs.  Paterson's plan is an illegal violation of the terms of existing collective bargaining agreements.  "We're not going to give back anything we fought for and have a contract for," Donohue said.

Closer to home, nearly 150 workers from the Rochester area took their message to the streets.  Outside the Rochester Psychiatric Center at 1111 Elmwood Ave., workers lined the avenue chanting loudly and holding signs that read, "No Furloughs!" and "Enough is Enough!"

In Buffalo, angry workers chanted "No furloughs!" at passing motorists and pedestrians.  About 250 folks gathered at noon outside Ellicott Square— the Western New York headquarters for many state agencies. They heard leaders from CSEA and Public Employees Federation urge them through bullhorns to resist Paterson's furlough plans, receiving sympathetic horn blasts from fire trucks and Metro Rail trains that rolled on by during lunchtime.

"We didn't create this mess; Wall Street did," chanted Courtney Brunelle, WNY Political Action Coordinator for CSEA. "We do our job; you do yours." 

Brunelle told the Buffalo News, ""Every time you furlough these folks and not put their dollars back into the economy, you're just prolonging the recession.  We just want the governor to pass a responsible budget. Putting us in the middle of a political game of chicken with the Legislature is a failed strategy."