NEWS
State officials tell NYRA workers there will be no shutdown
Posted: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 3:21 PM
by Paul Post
State leaders assured track workers on Tuesday that New York racing will not come to a halt.
More than 100 New York Racing Association employees and backstretch workers rallied in Albany, the state capital, and called on Governor Eliot Spitzer and the legislature to reach a franchise agreement before NYRA’s temporary extension expires on Wednesday.
NYRA says the tracks will close on Thursday if a deal is not struck by the close of business—at 4:30 p.m. EST on Wednesday—throwing hundreds of people out of work. NYRA has begun preparing layoff notices that will be distributed if there is no settlement.
“They’re not going to close the track,” Gary Pretlow (D-Yonkers) told roughly two dozen track workers gathered in his Albany office. Pretlow chairs the state Assembly’s Racing and Wagering Committee.
NYRA sent three busloads of downstate workers north to Albany, where they were joined by about 25 Saratoga Race Course employees.
The group rallied on the capitol steps with signs such as “Working People for NYRA” and “New York Racing, New York Jobs.”
Then they headed next door to the Legislative Office Building, where a small contingent met with Pretlow and Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer (D-Queens), whose district is home to Aqueduct, where NYRA is conducting winter racing.
If there is no agreement by midnight Wednesday, the track will go dark indefinitely.
“We have drawn a card for Thursday, in case a last minute settlement is reached; but the mood is not very optimistic,” NYRA spokesman John Lee said.
However, Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno told track workers that negotiations are done and his office is just waiting for a bill from the governor’s office that the legislature can vote on. That could come Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning, he said.
“You’re going to keep right on working,” Bruno told track workers. “It’s pretty well done. I thought we had it done last night. I hope the governor will send up a printed bill. We should be able to pass a bill this afternoon or by the latest tomorrow [Wednesday] morning.”
On Monday, NYRA issued a statement saying it did not approve of terms of the agreement. Bruno said he is not sure what NYRA’s specific concerns are.
“I don’t know; sometimes people don’t know when to stop negotiating,” he said. “It’s a 190-page bill. That’s what we’re waiting for. The speaker [Sheldon Silver, (D-Manhattan)] and I pretty well agreed yesterday and I think the governor’s in agreement.”
Spitzer spokeswoman Jennifer Givner said, “I thought we’d have an announcement yesterday [Monday]. We’re working as hard as we can.”
The state and NYRA have different perspectives on how things will play out if there is no agreement. NYRA says it will close the tracks. Bruno and Pretlow say that federal labor law forbids that.
The federal WARN Act requires employers to give 60 days notice, but the state Labor Department says the law does not come with enforcement powers, meaning that track workers would have to file suit to prevent a shutdown.
Pretlow insists that the tracks belong to the state.
“They [NYRA] don’t have that power and we have those lock cutters,” he said. “The state police are very apt at breaking in to places.”
He said the state Non-Profit Racing Association Oversight Board would keep racing going.
Bruno, however, says it will not come to that.
“We’ve agreed on board members, we’ve agreed on the dynamics, we’ve agreed on all the major points of discussion,” he said.
Paul Post is a New York-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent
