Union workers face cuts for pay, health benefits and pension, but aren't putting up a fight

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/07/18/2010-07-18_a_lack_of_pension_tension_unions_facing_cuts_quietly.html

Adam Lisberg

There's a war going on about trimming the paychecks, health benefits and pensions of public employees.

But the public employee unions are barely showing up for the fight.

Mayor Bloomberg, the Citizens Budget Commission and the Manhattan Institute are among the many groups banging the drum to rein in what the city pays its workers.

Granted, Bloomberg agreed to 4% pay hikes when he was running for a third term and needed union endorsements. But with pension and health care costs exploding, municipal workers are a target.

The drumbeat seems to be working: A Quinnipiac University poll last month found 56% of New Yorkers said union workers aren't doing their fair share. Even 49% of Democrats felt that way.

So where's the response from the once-feared DC37, from the supposedly powerful Working Families Party, from the Municipal Labor Committee that won those allegedly crippling benefits?

FULL story at link.