Letter: NIFA compromise on wage freeze
Jon Kaiman is shown at a Nassau Interim Finance Authority (NIFA) meeting in Uniondale on Oct. 9, 2013. Credit: Newsday / John Paraskevas
I find it appalling that the proposal from Jon Kaiman, chairman of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, to county unions actually pretends to be a solution to a three-year illegal wage freeze.
Unions have challenged the pay freeze in court. Kaiman’s solution is a slap in the face to every hard-working county employee. These are people who have signed up for a job that had a certain pay scale, only to have the plan frozen in time while expenses continued to increase steadily.
The pay freeze may have helped a collapsed budget for the short term, however, it has done far more serious harm to a great workforce that serves the public. Savings accounts are depleted, credit-card debt is soaring, mortgages have been refinanced to longer terms and houses have been sold — all because the Nassau County budget problem falls on the backs of employees and not on the political leaders who can’t manage one of the richest counties in New York.
James Gampel
Mt. Sinai
