If you go: In Rochester, demonstrators plan to gather today in front of City Hall in support of union workers in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and elsewhere. The rally is planned for 4:30 p.m. today at 30 Church St.

*** Unions rally to keep rights

ALBANY — More than 1,500 union workers in New York rallied at the state Capitol on Tuesday, vowing to seek to retain workers’ rights in the face of national backlash from state government leaders.
“We are, you are the backbone of this country,” said Denis Hughes, president of the 2.5 million-member state AFL-CIO. “And that’s why it’s so galling that we find ourselves today defending the very nature of what it is we do, defending our integrity, only because we stand up for our rights.”
Union leaders on Tuesday, led by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said the clashes between unions and Republican governors in Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio have hardened their resolve.
In New York, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo isn’t proposing the type of slashes to collective bargaining rights that other states have, but he is seeking $450 million in concessions from state workers. Without the concessions, Cuomo said, he would lay off as many as 9,800 workers this year.
And Cuomo is seeking a $1.5 billion cut in school aid, which teachers unions estimate would lead to thousands of layoffs.

“What unionized workers have achieved in the last 60 or 70 years not just for the union worker, but for all workers in the United States, is being threatened,” said Elio Giuliani, a union leader in Westchester County with the Civil Service Employees Association.
The contracts for most state workers in New York are due to expire March 31, the end of the 2010-11 fiscal year. And even though Cuomo is seeking to freeze their wages, about 50,000 workers are due automatic pay increases later this year because of longevity and cost-of-living raises.
Negotiations have yet to start in earnest, but Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto said preliminary discussions with the unions are under way.

Kathy Button, a CSEA union leader in Rochester, said she’s concerned that negotiations may be hamstrung by the layoff threat from Cuomo. “When you’re looking at a state saying, ‘Well, either we get this much money or we’ll have 9,400 layoffs,’ it’s a little scary,” she said.
Local governments and schools are seeking changes to state labor laws to give them flexibility during contract negotiations. Many are seeking reforms to the Triborough amendment, which allows union members to receive step salary increases even when a contract expires.
Some fiscally conservative groups and lawmakers want to move public workers into a 401(k)-type pension system, saying the current defined-benefit system is bankrupting local govern- ments.
But Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, a Democrat, said he would defend the current system.

“You know who benefits from that other system? All the money managers that can manage all those accounts,” DiNapoli told union members at a luncheon, saying the current system protects retirees’ pensions.
Unions and education groups rallied outside the Capitol on Tuesday in support of keeping higher income taxes on the wealthy. The measure, which in 2009 established a higher income-tax bracket for people making more than $200,000 a year, is set to expire at year’s end.
Instead of cutting aid to schools and services, the tax should be retained, the groups said. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said Assembly Democrats would back keeping the tax, which brings in about $5 billion in revenue to the state, but Cuomo and the Senate Republican majority oppose it.
JSPECTOR http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20110302/NEWS01/103020331/Unions-rally-keep-rights

***Not Your Grandparent’s Clenched Fist
http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/not-your-grandparent-s-clenched-fist