Cynthia Nixon dropped a bombshell into the governor’s race on Tuesday, saying government workers should have the right to strike.
The Taylor Law prohibits public employees from striking and their unions face severe consequences for conducting illegal work stoppages.
But Nixon charged the law is tilted against workers.
“As governor, Cynthia will resist federal, right-to-work attacks on organized labor by amending Taylor Law to allow public sector workers the right to strikes and support organizing drivers or larger and stronger union,” Nixon said in releasing a plan for economic development.
A Nixon spokeswoman confirmed that teachers, transit workers and sanitation workers would be allowed to strike under Nixon’s proposal, as is the case in a dozen other states.
But Nixon’s spokeswoman, Lauren Hitt, said “she is open to exempting certain essential employees” — such as police officers and firefighters.
The anti-strike law was put in place because work stoppages had crippled the city in past decades.
Subways and buses were out of commission for two days before Christmas in 2005 when transit workers walked off the job — strangling commerce and the entire city.
TWU Local 100 faced severe penalties — including the loss of automatic dues checkoffs and it took the union years to recover from the loss of millions of dollars in revenue.
Some government experts said Nixon’s proposal was reckless and smacked of desperation.
Most unions are backing Nixon’s opponent, two-term incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in the Sept. 13 Democratic primary.
“Nixon is going to allow firefighters to go on strike and let houses burn and people die? She’s going to allow hospital workers go on strike and let children die?” said former Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
“This is so unrealistic that it’s pathetic. She wants to turn New York into Venezuela.”
George Arzt, a political consultant who served under former Mayor Ed Koch, called the Nixon proposal “reckless” and “crazy.”
“It makes no sense. It shows she is a novice when even thinking about running a government. If you’re the head of a government you don’t want to see a strike cripple the city. The Taylor Law prevents chaos,” he said.
The head of the city’s largest business group gave Nixon plan a thumbs down.
“Public sector workers are well compensated for the essential services they perform and the collective bargaining process has worked very well for them. It is irresponsible to suggest that they should have the right to strike,” said Kathryn Wyle, CEO of the New York City Partnership.
As part of the trade-off not striking, many government employees have a right to binding arbitration during a contract standoff. And they keep their salary and benefits when their contract expires and some, including teachers, continue to accumulate seniority and salary step-ups during a contract impasse.
“I agree. We should have a right to strike,” said national TWU president John Samuelsen, whose union is backing Cuomo. But he said the Nixon proposal smacked of “political opportunism” and complained she made prior remarks critical of transit workers for cost overruns.
“I don’t think she cares a rat’s ass about workers,” he said.