Editor’s Note: This article has been amended to reflect 2018 changes to the Taylor Law.
On April 21, 1967, CSEA entered a new era when we gained the legal right to collective bargaining.
Over the past half century, the state Public Employees Fair Employment Act — better known as the Taylor Law — has given our union the right to negotiate under the law fair wages, strong health benefits and workplace protections for our members.
As we are facing unprecedented challenges to our future, it’s important to never take for granted our rights under this important law.
Public sector catches up
While many of our state’s elected leaders had long acknowledged CSEA as a legitimate public employee representative, our union legally didn’t have the right to bargain collectively with employers.
In the mid 1960s, Gov. Nelson Rockefeller formed a commission to examine public-sector labor relations after the state and several municipalities faced labor unrest related to the Condon-Wadlin Act, which prohibited public employees from striking, did not allow collective bargaining and didn’t give workers an alternative means for settling labor-management disputes.
University of Pennsylvania professor George Taylor led the commission that would draft new legislation to replace Condon-Wadlin. Among those who drafted the new law was Jerome Lefkowitz, a state Department of Labor attorney who would later serve as CSEA’s Deputy Counsel for 20 years.
Rockefeller signed the state Public Employees Fair Employment Act — or the Taylor Law — into law in April 1967. The Taylor Law also prohibited strikes by public employees, but it gave public employees the right to collectively bargain. It also established a charter of rights for public employees, and established the state Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) to oversee the law.
The Taylor Law, and the 1982 Triborough Amendment, which bars public employers from changing provisions of expired labor agreements until a new contract is reached, have guided our work in securing fair agreements.
Facing challenges
Among the many challenges facing CSEA and other public employees in New York is support from some individuals, elected officials and organizations for changing the Taylor Law, particularly repealing the Triborough Amendment.
Without this amendment, many of our workplace protections could be jeopardized, along with the quality of public services that our members and other public workers provide in New York every day.
In April 2018, the Taylor Law was amended to protect working people from the effects of the then impending U.S. Supreme Court Janus decision (which was handed down on June 27, 2018.). The changes include giving public employee unions the option not to provide representation to nonmembers for any services beyond those included in collective bargaining agreements, including disciplinary cases. The amended law also requires public employers to notify employee representatives with a list of new employees and their contact information, as well as a chance to meet with the new employees, within 30 days of employment. Another change to the law allows members who return from a leave in employment to return as members.
— Janice Gavin
