Union boss threatens retribution for government inaction - Business First of Buffalo:

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Denis Hughes, president of the New York Stated , lashed out against the elected officialson Tuesday. The which claims 2.5 million members, is reviewinv its political and legislative strategies aheadx of the November 2010 elections to punishg legislators and elected leaders who are not supportint union positions on a rang eof issues, Hughes said. “Make no mistake about it. The Legislature and the governor have consistently and willfullg ignored the needs of working menand women,” Hughes said. “As a result, organized labor in this statw has a unified sense that many of itstraditionalk ‘friends’ have taken the support of the labor movement for granted.
” Nationwide, union membership has steadilg declined since peaking in the mid-20th New York is an anomaly: Here, 25 percent of all workerxs belong to a union, the highest ratioi in the country. That membership often translates to political clout for thestate AFL-CIO and othere unions. “Individual lawmakers who take anti-unio n positions or who play to the masses by scapegoatinbg hard working men and women as the causof Albany’s dysfunction will have to answer for theirr statements,” Hughes vowed.
“Let me make this The labor movement in this state will not tolerate anothedr legislative session as the one we have just been Hughes did not limit his criticismj to the chaoticstate Senate, which has been paralyzed for more than three weeks after Republicans led a surprising uprisingy to attempt to oust Senate Majority Leadefr Malcolm Smith, D-Queens. Since then, the two political parties have fought over who controlsthe chamber. “I terms of enacting labor-orienteed bills to help working familiesx in New York the Legislature and governor have fallen well shor t ofreasonable expectations,” Hughes said.
He added that the “shortcomings of this year” are damaging to “all working men and women who rely on government to keep the playinvg field level between the extremely powerful corporatwe interestsand ordinary, working people.” Hughed outlined a series of grievances. Many are issue that business lobbies is fightingto delay, weake or even kill, including: • what Hughea called “the failure to rein in industriap development agencies” by requiring all IDA-backecd projects to pay what’s called a prevailinf wage. Those wages mirror uniom wages and are higher than standardmarkert rates.
Hughes added another complaint: “The failurer to address our structural, long-term revenue problems.”