The Taylor Law in New York State provides the right for public employees to form labor unions and to have those unions collectively bargain with the public employer on behalf of those employees. This includes all NYC municipal unions.
The Taylor Law came about after the NYC transit strike of 1966. The city came to a standstill for 12 days and demonstrated the power that can be wielded when a group acts collectively when inadequate terms and a deadlocked negotiation are presented as the only offer. There was a law in place already challenging any unionized striking workers, known as the Condon-Wadlin Act, with strong penalties – striking employees are immediately terminated; any former employees that were later reinstated would not be eligible for pay increases for three years; and reinstated employees would be on probation for five years. This would be difficult to enforce – where would the city get 33,000 replacement workers of various disciplines if they fired everyone? Not to mention the loss of goodwill and trust in further negotiations as well as a severe reduction in quality of service to the public.
The Taylor Law, officially known as The Public Employees’ Fair Employment Act, is a labor relations statute covering most public employees in New York State including counties, cities, towns, villages, school districts, public authorities or certain special service districts. After the transit strike, Governor Rockefeller appointed a panel to review the 1966 strike and make legislative proposals that were more enforceable as well as methods to resolve disputes before they escalated to a level where a strike may be considered. The panel was chaired by George W. Taylor, a professor of industrial relations at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a well-known arbitrator of industrial disputes. The results of the panel were made into law on April 21, 1967 and the “Taylor Law” became effective in September 1967.
The Taylor Law provides direction on several things. From the New York State website the Taylor Law:
- grants public employees the right to organize and to be represented by employee organizations of their own choice;
- requires public employers to negotiate and enter into agreements with public employee organizations regarding their employees’ terms and conditions of employment;
- establishes impasse procedures for the resolution of collective bargaining disputes;
- defines and prohibits improper practices by public employers and public employee organizations;
- prohibits strikes by public employees; and
- establishes a state agency to administer the Law — The Public Employment Relations Board (PERB).
Taylor Law has stiff, but more enforceable, penalties for striking – a striking employee could lose two days’ pay for every day on strike; the union would lose the right to have automatic payroll deductions taken from the employees – something being argued in the courts today and is damaging to the union; employee pay could be withheld until the strike is over, among other penalties.
The Taylor Law was tested in 2005 when Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union rejected terms regarding a change in pension deductions and terms for its members. The strike lasted for three days. Ultimately all employees were docked six days’ pay and the union was fined $1 million per day, lost the right to collect union dues for a period, and the union president was sentenced to 10 days in jail.
There have been other strikes within the state and the city since the Taylor Law went into effect but it has been strong enough to generally encourage good faith bargaining, although sometimes bargaining frustrations still leave the idea of a strike as a potential option.
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