Early yesterday afternoon, Judge Arthur Spatt in Federal Court issued his decision on the "King Mangano law" (Local Law #315-12). This law, if enacted, would have given the County Executive the authority to open up collective bargaining agreements and extract $41 million dollars in labor savings to pay for the backlog of the County's tax judgements.

Judge Spatt granted the Plaintiffs (COBA, PBA, DAI, SOA, & CSEA) the Preliminary Injunction, barring the County Executive from unilaterally modifying any terms or conditions of employment that are set forth in our contract, pending the final determination at the conclusion of the case. He also denied the County's argument that he didn't have jurisdiction to decide the Federal issue since COBA had a motion in State Court contesting the manner in which this Local Law was adopted. COBA will still be proceeding in State Court on that matter. Lastly, the County asked the Judge to have the plaintiff's (COBA, PBA, DAI, SOA, & CSEA) post a $41 million bond to put in escrow pending the final determination. Judge Spatt denied the County's motion on that as well.

This is a victory for COBA and all of the other County labor unions. This injunction puts to to bed the immediate threat of the County Executive unilaterally opening up our contracts and modifying our collective bargaining agreements.