On Wednesday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a deal with Council 82, a law enforcement union. The agreement includes higher health care costs, a three year wage freeze and no automatic pay increases. The Governor urged other public unions to accept similar deals, or risk large numbers of layoffs. However, the Public Employees Federation, which represents 58,000 workers said that it had rejected a similar deal, saying that the state had said that layoffs might still occur even with the deal. The Governor is trying to close a $10 billion deficit without raising taxes, but financial analysts have warned that laying off public sector workers may reduce GDP.
See "New York Governor gets one labor accord, but truce unlikely", Dan Wiessner, Reuters, April 13, 2011