What is the Triborough Amendment?

The Triborough Amendment is an amendment to the Taylor Law.

See the link below for a detailed study of it.

http://www.empirecenter.org/Documents/PDF/Triborough%20Final1.pdf

also below a WSJ article on how repeal is faring...
 

By JACOB GERSHMAN

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has promised to relieve local governments of huge, state-mandated costs this year.
But people familiar with the Cuomo administration's thinking said the governor won't pursue a potent weapon in that effort—repealing a law that keeps public-employee union contracts in effect even after they expire.
New York state's Conference of Mayors, school districts and other groups have urged Mr. Cuomo to scrap or at least scale back what's known as the Triborough Amendment. Critics of the 30-year-old law have argued it gives unions less incentive to compromise on a new contract.
The pay increases guaranteed to public-school teachers under the law add nearly $300 million a year to school budgets around the state, according to a new report issued Wednesday by the Empire Center for New York State Policy, a conservative research group.
While accepting a three-year freeze of base salaries last year, state-government union workers are entitled to automatic pay increases that cost the state $140 million a year, the report said.
"This is probably the single most important mandate-relief issue the governor can tackle. It doesn't cost anything to do this," said E.J. McMahon, a co-author of the Empire Center report. "The only cost is political in terms of union opposition."
Union leaders say the Triborough Amendment is crucial to their bargaining rights. The law amended the 1967 Taylor Act, which gave public-sector workers the right to organize, reaffirmed a ban on government union strikes and. labor officials argue, allowed management to impose wage cuts unilaterally by stalling negotiations until a contract expired.
"The notion that freezing step increases would somehow balance out negotiations at the bargaining table is very cynical," said Carl Korn, a spokesman for New York State United Teachers. "We all know that if salaries and steps were frozen, there would be no incentive for school boards to come to the table and negotiate in good faith."
But David Albert, a spokesman for the New York State School Boards Association, said the law "acts as a disincentive for employees to make difficult choices or agree to concessions."
"School boards already have an incentive to negotiate in good faith," he said. "It's the law."
In his State of the State speech last week, Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, said he would push to "enact mandate relief." But beyond backing a plan to reduce long-term pension costs, the governor didn't present specific proposals.
People familiar with the administration's thinking said the governor's office has indicated that it would leave the Triborough Amendment intact.
Repealing the law hasn't gotten much traction with Republicans who control the state Senate. The Democratic-controlled Assembly supports the law.
In the past year, Assemblyman Robert Castelli, a Republican from White Plains, introduced a pair of bills repealing or temporarily scaling back the Triborough Amendment. A few Republicans endorsed the bill, but not a single Democrat joined him as a co-sponsor. "I'm not an antiunion guy," Mr. Castelli said. "I just saw this as a matter of responsible government and fiscal conservatism in a bad economy."
Write to Jacob Gershman at jacob.gershman@wsj.com