PEP, April 2006: AFSCME activists fight cuts by Pataki

At a political rally to oppose Gov. George E. Pataki’s proposed budget and remind lawmakers of its clout, labor powerhouse AFSCME and its affiliates delivered a message with a one-two punch to politicians at its annual lobby day in Albany on March 6.

“Cutting vital services in favor of tax cuts for the rich is just plain wrong,” boomed AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee, who addressed more than 1,200 union activists, including eight busloads of DC 37 members and members from five other affiliated unions from across New York State.

For the first time since Sept. 11, 2001, the state has a $3 billion surplus. But the governor wants to “raid and squander” those funds in a $16 billion dollar, five-year tax giveaway to the wealthy, while public schools are failing, hospital beds are folding and vital services — and the workers who provide them — are being asked to do more with less, McEntee said.

“It’s time to stand up for New Yorkers and stand up to Pataki,” McEntee said in a reminder of accountability. “Any politician who does not support us, we will retire in November.”

Fighting back
AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which is DC 37’s parent union, represents 1.4 million public employees across the nation. For them and millions more Americans, life is worse since President George W. Bush took office.

Across the country household incomes have declined; fewer people have any savings; 46 million people have no health insurance. And the situation is far worse for families affected by Katrina and Federal Emergency Management Agency’s failed promises of aid, and those fighting what state Senate Minority Leader David Paterson described as a “misguided war in Iraq” that costs taxpayers $100,000 a minute, or $5.1 billion a week.

Universal health care, pension security, and bringing troops home from Iraq, McEntee said, are primary issues in the upcoming November elections as part of AFSCME’s political agenda.

“The American dream is not to lie, cheat, and steal from hardworking people,” said state Attorney General Elliot Spitzer.

Spitzer has aggressively prosecuted investment banks, pharmaceutical corporations and their CEOs who raid pensions, defraud investors and mislead the public.

Spitzer, who is running for governor of New York said, “No one is so powerful to be above the law. No one is too small to protect.”

The unions gained bipartisan support in their fight against Pataki’s reckless tax cuts from state Sens. Joseph Bruno and Paterson, who is running for lieutenant governor with Spitzer, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. These powerful legislators promised to restore millions of dollarsPataki would cut from the 2006-07 budget affecting the Campaign for FiscalEquity and education, health care, daycare,tuition assistance and programs thatassuage homelessness and hunger in the state.

Before thousands of union members fanned out to lobby state legislators on AFSCME’s opposition to Pataki’s “anti-worker” budget, McEntee said, “If politicians do not take care of our cities, our hamlets and towns, if legislators do not support our program, they are toast!”

— Diane S. Williams