Unions in New York State Get Raises Even Without Contracts Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times Jena Commerford, who has worked for the Department of General Services for five years, raking in a park in Albany. ALBANY - Public employees are working without contracts in cities and counties across New York State, as labor negotiations stall because local governments say they cannot afford to raise wages. But many union members are still taking home larger paychecks, thanks to a state law that allows workers to continue receiving longevity-based salary increases after their contracts expire. The pattern is seen throughout the state. All labor contracts in Albany, New Rochelle and Yonkers have expired. So have seven of nine contracts in Syracuse, six of eight in Buffalo and most of the contracts in New York City. And the same trend is unfolding at the county level. The New York State Association of Counties surveyed 17 counties at the request of The New York Times and found that 41 of 67 labor contracts had expired. Each side blames the other for the holdup. But it is clear that in many cases, unions are strategically deciding they are better off stalling negotiations now, given the grim financial picture. That is partly because New York's 30-year-old Triborough Amendment guarantees that the terms of public labor contracts remain in place even after they expire. In Westchester County, where all eight labor contracts have expired, the executive, Robert P. Astorino, a Republican, has sought to have union members pay a share of their health care costs. But in December, Westchester County's largest union, CSEA, balked and declared negotiations at an impasse. And that's where negotiations remain - stalled. Before Triborough, "If you declared impasse, labor would be putting itself at considerable peril," said Stephen Madarasz, CSEA's spokesman, adding, "before they used this principle you basically had a situation where management could impose its will once a contract expired." When times are good, the impact of the Triborough Amendment is blunted, because municipalities can afford to offer salary increases as part of contract negotiations. But when budgets are squeezed, as they are now, municipal leaders often seek wage or benefit concessions, which leave unions with little incentive to come to the bargaining table and negotiate in earnest. "Most labor leaders, when they are negotiating with the executive branch, are realistic," said Mayor Mike Spano of Yonkers, a Democrat. In this environment, there's going to be no greater benefit that's going to get offered to them, so why settle? Union leaders acknowledged that getting deals done is harder than it once was, though they deny deliberate efforts to halt the negotiations. . "It's a complicated time," said Mr. Madarasz, the spokesman for the Civil Service Employees Association. We're still settling contracts, but they are probably taking a little bit longer and starting a little bit later. More municipalities are waiting until they are close to the deadline to start negotiations or starting after contracts expired. The effect of the Triborough Amendment is significant: Edmund J. McMahon, senior fellow at the Empire Center for New York State Policy, a conservative research group, has estimated that longevity-based pay increases for teachers, guaranteed by the amendment even after contracts expire, add $300 million to school budgets annually. Mr. McMahon is an advocate for repealing the measure, saying workers have enough protections elsewhere in state regulations. "Triborough is most noticeable in an economic and fiscal environment like the present one," Mr. McMahon said. It's less noticeable in a boom period. There is one way cities and counties can sometimes freeze wages: when their finances deteriorate so badly that they are taken over by control boards, as has happened in Nassau and Erie Counties. "The ability to freeze wages is an essential tool for a control board," said Ronald A. Stack, chairman of the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority, adding that it "can help avoid more severe labor cost-saving measures such as layoffs or furloughs." But in Nassau, unions are suing to prevent the control board there from imposing wage freezes for a second year. Many other municipalities, finding their budgets strained by soaring pension and health care costs, are resorting to layoffs and service cuts to balance their budgets - or to try to bring unions back to the bargaining table.