Nassau follows nation's lead on labor effort

At any other time, Nassau County's bid to suspend or roll back contract agreements with its employees might have created shock waves in the region and beyond.

But news just from this week shows how clearly the fiscal drumbeats on Long Island echo those elsewhere.

House Republicans in Washington, settling back into power, changed the name of the Education and Labor Committee - to the Education and Workforce Committee.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office circulated a draft bill in Albany that could remove deputy fire chiefs, police commanders and school principals from unionized posts.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, at the same time, had the business-backed "Save New York" group cheerleading in broadcast commercials for his purportedly tough fiscal medicine.

This last action looks pre-emptive. Everyone on the scene recalls how negative TV ads from health care unions helped collapse Gov. Eliot Spitzer's poll numbers when he proposed big cuts prior to the national financial crisis.

In California, some tax-activist groups, going for more than public opinion, are agitating to make bankruptcy a viable legal option for states. This prompted a local official of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees to declare that the proposal was "for the express purpose of reneging on collective-bargaining agreements."

"They're trying to create this hysterical atmosphere," the official, Chuck Loveless, told the Los Angeles Times.

Panicky or not, efforts by elected officials to show the tax-vexed public how doggedly they are cutting public-employee benefits down to size come during a big transition in American labor.

One year ago this week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that for the first time, a majority of union members were on government, rather than private, payrolls.

For all the noise, the degree and pace at which elected executives and lawmakers will gore the oxen of public employees in the coming months and years remain to be seen.

Part of this scene has been seen before.

The last time the GOP in Congress changed that committee's title from "labor" to "workforce" was in 1995 under the leadership of Newt Gingrich.

In New York, elected officials have been less than strident, prompting some fiscal conservatives to privately express impatience.

Bloomberg asked the state Legislature to create a new, less costly pension tier. But he didn't seek a 401(k)-type retirement plan to replace the current fixed-pension system. And his bid to take certain employees out from under the state civil-service system is given early odds of failure in Albany.

While warning of layoffs, and seeking to fend off a fiscal monitor's takeover, Nassau Executive Edward P. Mangano still seeks to be persuasive, stating in his recent letter to county employees: "I require your voluntary cooperation in reaching common sense concessions."

Also, some union officials were surprised when Cuomo, in his state-of-the-state speech, didn't target them. He called as long expected for a one-year wage freeze for state employees, but not the legislative finding of fiscal emergency as some favored.

"I don't think the workforce expects a raise for a while anyway," said a retired state employee and labor official. "Public employees just want their futures protected. Hopefully, Cuomo will be an honest broker. There's great room for compromises."