9.1 - A. Introduction

• Jurisdiction: New York

A. Introduction

At the time of the enactment of the Taylor Law in 1967 a statutory prohibition against public employee strikes had been in effect for 20 years.⁴⁶⁵⁹ The original prohibition, known as the Condon-Wadlin Act, was enacted immediately following a public school teacher strike in Buffalo in 1947. A detailed history of public sector strikes and the Condon-Wadlin Act is set forth in Chapter 1.

The enactment of the Taylor Law was in response to a series of strikes in 1965 and 1966 by New York City employees. A 28-day strike by employees of the New York City Welfare Department set the stage for the passage of legislation that again prohibited public employee strikes. Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, however, vetoed the bill because it weakened the anti-strike provisions of the Condon-Wadlin Act.

On January 1, 1966, employees of the New York City Transit Authority commenced a strike that lasted 13 days.⁴⁶⁶⁰ The 1966 transit strike precipitated Governor Rockefeller, on January 15, 1966, to establish the Committee on Public Employee Relations. George W. Taylor, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, chaired the committee. Consequently, the committee and the ensuing statute have been popularly referred to as the Taylor Committee and the Taylor Law.

The committee was to make legislative recommendations “for protecting the public against the disruption of vital public services by illegal strikes, while at the same time protecting the rights of public employees.”⁴⁶⁶¹

Although the committee’s report was issued on March 31, 1966, the legislature did not act on the report during that legislative session.⁴⁶⁶² The legislature’s failure to act in 1966 can be attributed, in large measure, to the irreconcilable differences between the recommendations of the governor’s committee and those of a tripartite panel established by Mayor John V. Lindsay of New York City. In 1967, the legislature enacted the Public Employees’ Fair Employment Act, article 14 of the N.Y. Civil Service Law (the Taylor Law), and repealed the Condon-Wadlin Act.⁴⁶⁶³

Among other things, the Taylor Law attempted to correct the evident defects of Condon-Wadlin by emphasizing dispute resolution through mandatory collective bargaining and grievance arbitration as effective alternatives to strikes.⁴⁶⁶⁴ Moreover, although the Taylor Law continued the prohibitions against strikes that originated in Condon-Wadlin, it differed in many significant respects from its predecessor, most notably in...