Collective Bargaining and the Fiscal Crisis in New York City: Cooperation for Survival
![handle is hein.journals/frdurb10 and id is 391 raw text is: COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AND THE
FISCAL CRISIS IN NEW YORK CITY:
COOPERATION FOR SURVIVAL
ARVID ANDERSON *
MARJORIE A. LONDON **
I. Introduction
In 1975, New York City was on the verge of bankruptcy. The city's
fiscal crisis was blamed in part on the collective bargaining process
and there was a real question as to whether the process would survive.
In an extraordinary rescue effort, the state and federal governments
joined with the city administration, municipal labor unions, and the
business community to save the city.
The state legislature created the Municipal Assistance Corporation1
to market city securities and passed the Financial Emergency Act of
19752 which imposed a wage freeze on public employees. In 1978,
Congress enacted the New York City Loan Guarantee Act,3 providing
federal loan guarantees to the city. This legislation engendered in-
creased state and federal government involvement in the city's affairs
by mandating that state and federal agencies monitor collective bar-
gaining between the city and its- employees.4 The city's financial
predicament also required increased cooperation in the public sector
* Chairman, New York City Office of Collective Bargaining. B.A. 1946, LLB.
1948, University of Wisconsin.
** Executive Assistant to the Chairman, New York City Office of Collective
Bargaining. B.A. 1970, Mount Holyoke College. J.D. 1979, Fordham University.
1. N.Y. PUB. AUTH. LAW § 3033 (McKinney 1981).
2. Ch. 868, [1975] N.Y. Laws 1405 (McKinney). See notes 6-23 infra and accom-
panying text.
3. 31 U.S.C. §§ 1521-1531 (Supp. III 1979). See notes 46-49 infra and accompany-
ing text.
4. Committee on Labor and Employment Law, The Impact of the Fiscal Crisis
and State and Federal Remedial Legislation on the Structure and Scope of Collective
Bargaining in New York City, 34 RECORD OF N.Y.C.B.A. 754, 763 (1979) [hereinafter
cited as Committee Report]. This article is the last of a series of three on the subject of
the fiscal crisis and collective bargaining in New York City. The first two articles
appear at 31 RECORD OF N.Y.C.B.A. 386 (1976), and at 32 RECORD OF N.Y.C.B.A. 462
(1977), respectively. The presence of state and federal agencies in the city's bargain-
ing process has raised certain questions about who the real employer is. See Weitz-
man, The Effect of Economic Restraints on Public-Sector Collective Bargaining: The
Lessons of New York City, 2 EMPL. REL. L.J. 286, 291, 293 (1977).
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Collective Bargaining and the Fiscal Crisis in New York City: Cooperation for Survival
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