Public-Worker Unions Skip Albany Ad Blitz for New Tactics

A New York Times article about different the fight against cuts undertaken by New York's public sector unions:

Faced with devastating budget cuts from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and a deeply hostile electorate, New York’s most influential public-employee unions have unexpectedly shifted their strategy for defending cherished government programs and worker benefits. Put off for now are the angry denunciations and millions of dollars of advertisements, chiefly from hospitals and a health care union, that have traditionally begun haunting governors in early February.

Instead, two coalitions of labor unions and their allies are mounting campaigns aimed chiefly at persuading Mr. Cuomo to extend the so-called millionaire’s tax, a state surcharge on high-income New Yorkers that is scheduled to expire in December. The tax, which Mr. Cuomo wants to eliminate, could bring in billions of dollars in revenue in the next few years, cushioning cuts to schools and Medicaid.

The labor groups want to reframe a debate that they believe has overemphasized service cuts and cast public workers as selfish and overpaid.

One such group, the Strong Economy for All Coalition, will formally open next week with a $5 million budget, backed by S.E.I.U. 1199, the powerful health care workers’ union, and the United Federation of Teachers, the New York City teachers union.

Most of the money will go not to television and radio advertisements, but for canvassing, social media and other organizing efforts intended to bring pressure on lawmakers from their own constituents, drawing in part on lessons the teachers learned from defeating candidates backed by well-financed charter school advocates in the Democratic primary last fall.

“We think the ad wars make people feel disenfranchised from the process,” said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers. “We want to do the grass-roots work — training people on speaking to community groups, going to civic associations, block associations, lawmakers. We want the lawmakers to hear from their real constituents, as opposed to the people that usually lobby them.”

Indeed, an early radio ad script from the group does not mention Mr. Cuomo at all. Instead, it assails “bankers, brokers and money managers” on Wall Street for collecting record pay and bonuses in the midst of a state fiscal crisis.

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