Scandal-plagued Cuomo and Organized Labor's Bizarre Silence

by Brendan O’Connor

Andrew Cuomo by zrs_one is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

Around this time last year, Andrew Cuomo, the three-term governor of New York, was basking in the weirdly sexual admiration of liberals around the country and a $4 million book deal. Thanks to his gentle-but-firm press conferences early in the Covid-19 pandemic and fawning media coverage, Cuomo was able to position himself not only as the anti-Trump but a potential 2024 presidential contender. That his petty feuding with Mayor Bill de Blasio likely killed thousands of New Yorkers was readily waved aside. Later in the year, as the governor's memoir about leadership in a crisis hit the New York Times bestseller list, Covid-19 cases in the state were spiking.

But early in 2021, something changed. In January, following the release of a damning report from the state attorney general, Letitia James, showing that as many as 50 percent more New York nursing home residents had died of Covid-19 than previously reported, the governor held a particularly abrasive press conference. "Who cares [if they] died in the hospital, died in a nursing home?" he asked. "They died." A few days later, one of Cuomo's top aides, Melissa DeRosa, admitted to Democratic state lawmakers that the administration had engaged in a coverup, ostensibly because they were afraid that the Trump administration would use the truth about how many people were getting sick and dying in the state's nursing homes as a political cudgel.

Shortly thereafter, the first of a series of women came forward to accuse Governor Cuomo of sexual misconduct. At the time of writing, at least six women have accused the governor of touching them without their consent or making sexually inappropriate or intimidating remarks. One, an aide who still works in his office, has accused Cuomo of groping her at the governor's mansion—the culmination of what she described in an anonymous interview with the Albany Times Union as years of escalating behavior. "It was never in front of anybody," she said. "He made sure that it was either at the mansion or, if it was at the Capitol, that no one was around."

This fit what former aide Charlotte Bennett described as a "pattern of predatory behavior" from Governor Cuomo, who she felt propositioned her early in the pandemic. "I understood that the governor wanted to sleep with me, and felt horribly uncomfortable and scared," Bennett told the New York Times, "and was wondering how I was going to get out of it and assumed it was the end of my job." Another former aide, Lindsay Boylan, has accused the governor of kissing her on the mouth without her consent and inviting her to play strip poker on his private jet. A second current aide, Alyssa McGrath, told the Times that the governor would ogle her body and make euphemistic comments.

Naturally, Cuomo denies everything. "At work sometimes I think I am being playful and make jokes that I think are funny. I do, on occasion, tease people in what I think is a good natured way. I do it in public and in private," he said in a February statement. "I now understand that my interactions may have been insensitive or too personal and that some of my comments, given my position, made others feel in ways I never intended. I acknowledge some of the things I have said have been misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation. To the extent anyone felt that way, I am truly sorry about that."

Setting his recent rebranding for a national audience aside, Andrew Cuomo has long been known in New York for what Rebecca Traister described as his "thuggish paternalism." In other words, as a bully and a lech—the kind of person who might try to smear someone who accused him of sexual assault. "Cuomo is an abuser," Assemblyman Ron Kim, a state lawmaker from Queens whose criticisms over the nursing home cover up the governor tried to silence, said on The View. "He has abused his powers. Abusers are cowards."

As the twin scandals of the cover up and the sexual misconduct allegations gained momentum, prompting new investigations from state and federal prosecutors, calls for the governor's resignation or impeachment also grew. Both Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand have called on Cuomo to resign, as has most of the rest of the Demoratic Congressional delegation. At the state level, both Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Speaker Carl Heastie also called for his resignation, as did a large swathe of the legislature. Basically, no one in New York Democratic Party politics, from the progressives to the establishment, wants anything to do with Cuomo anymore.

"I'm not going to resign because of allegations," the governor said in March. "The premise of resigning because of allegations is actually anti-democratic."

One corner of state politics that has been surprisingly quiet on the matter, however, is organized labor. Some unions have not shied from criticism, but these are the exceptions. "He has behaved totally inappropriately with women who have been on his staff who have worked closely with him. It's totally unacceptable," Fred Kowal, president of United University Professions, told WKBW. "I cannot put into words how brave I feel that these women are to come forward and make these accusations against the governor of the State of New York."

"Women who come forward with claims of sexual harassment must always be heard and believed," Beverley Brakeman, director of United Auto Workers Region 9A, said in a statement. "Those accused should also be afforded due process and the right to a fair and transparent investigation... We call on Governor Cuomo to step aside while the investigation is being conducted. Should the allegations be proven true, he should step down—no questions asked."

Far more union leaders have avoided commenting at all, or done so only very cautiously. "This is a democracy, and that there should be due process, and that the process should take place," Gary LaBarbera, president of both the New York State Building & Construction Trades Council, which represents some 200,000 workers, told City & State in March. "The women should be heard. [The governor], like anyone else, has a right to due process. I don’t believe in cancel culture."

"The accusations are serious, but… the Governor is entitled to due process," Jordan Isenstadt, a spokesperson for the Building & Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, reiterated in an email to Strikewave. Similarly, the New York State Public Employees Federation "has not publicly commented on either investigation," Rob Merrill, the union's communications director, wrote in an email. "It is our policy to respect the rights of all state employees to due process before punitive measures."

Strikewave requested clarification from more than a dozen major New York labor unions and federations, inquiring whether officials had commented on the investigations into the governor—and if they had not, why not? The New York City Central Labor Council declined to comment and the New York State AFL-CIO did not respond to our request. Nor did 1199 SEIU, the Civil Service Employees Association, the United Federation of Teachers, 32BJ SEIU, AFSCME District Council 37, the New York State Nurses Association, New York State United Teachers, the Professional Staff Congress, Communications Workers of America, Transit Workers Local 100, the Hotel Trades Council, or the Retail, Wholesale Department Store Union.

Deeply corrupt and famously vindictive, Andrew Cuomo has ever been the spoiled scion of a political dynasty, throwing his weight around to get what he wants—sometimes literally. As attorney general, he reportedly bragged about using his physicality and Italian heritage to intimidate people under investigation. As governor, he has used his power to shut down investigations that veered too close to his own activities, though he wasn't able to protect everyone around him: his top aide, Joseph Percoco, who Cuomo once referred to as "my father’s third son, who I sometimes think he loved the most," was convicted in 2018 of soliciting and accepting bribes.

For years, he used his influence to block a Democratic majority in both houses of the legislature by propping up the Independent Democratic Conference. Cuomo himself easily beat back challenges from Cynthia Nixon and Zephyr Teachout, though in doing so made more enemies than he could ultimately handle. His grip on New York state government began to loosen in 2018, when progressive challengers defeated the IDC. This was difficult for the governor to wrap his head around. "I believe I am the most progressive, or one of the most progressive leaders in the state," he said in 2019. "I am the left."

After another election season, the Democrats in the New York state legislature are even younger and more progressive—and, critically, have come to power without owing the governor anything. Both left-liberals and democratic socialists alike have reason to push for Cuomo's impeachment and resignation, and not just because he's a creep whose approach to governance caused and then covered up mass death.

Organized labor in New York is taking a much more cautious approach. Maybe the three-term governor will be able to weather these scandals, as he has before, the thinking seems to go. Maybe he will win an unprecedented fourth term, and will remember who demanded his head and who didn't, as he has before. Maybe, but probably not.

Unions that have grown close to Cuomo over the years would do well to remember who he really is. As Ross Barkan writes in his new book The Prince: "Cuomo’s first campaign for governor reflected his fundamental political beliefs. Unlike his father, he had no interest in speaking the language of the left. He campaigned, and would subsequently govern, as a triangulating Democrat, vowing to slash taxes, shrink government, and empower the state’s finance and real estate lobbies against organized labor."

Even if they ignore the changing political climate in the state—the shifting conditions, rising powers, and rickety party machinery—unions that haven't made their position on the governor's transgressions clear cannot escape the simple fact that he is, at bottom, a bad boss who has allegedly molested the people who work for him while endangering the lives of those entrusted to the state's care. It's not that complicated.

Brendan O’Connor is a freelance journalist, Strikewave editorial collective member, and the author of Blood Red Lines: How Nativism Fuels the Right. You can find him on Twitter @_grendan.