We’ve mused a lot on CapTon in recent weeks about why fight between public employee unions and Gov. Andrew Cuomo hasn’t risen to the same level of outright war that we’re seeing out in Wisconsin.

The general response from everyone I’ve put that question to is that Cuomo hasn’t gone nearly as far as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, in antagonizing the unions by preserving their main raison d’etre: Collective bargaining.

But now AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes is suggesting that the administration might actually cross that bridge if it supports a bill proposed by Sen. John Flanagan, a Long Island Republican, that would do away with the “last in, first out” rule of public school teacher layoffs.

The bill is expected to come for a vote in the Senate Education Committee tomorrow and it’s a top priority of Mayor Bloomberg, who is scheduled to make a special trip to Albany to lobby on its behalf.

Denis Hughes, the president of AFL-CIO (which, by the way, endorsed Cuomo last year), called Flanagan’s bill “a blatant assault on the principles of collective bargaining, and an attack on working men and women throughout this state who are represented by labor unions,” adding:

“I want to make it abundantly clear to our elected officials that they cannot use the Wisconsin model of politics here in New York, and that the New York State AFL-CIO will not tolerate attempts to silence the voice of working people.”

“…This bill is the result of a lengthy and coordinated campaign against the rights and benefits of all workers over the last several years, particularly against the rights and benefits of public employees. This has led to systematic attempts to dismantle collective bargaining rights, seniority, pensions, health insurance and civil service rights under the guise of ‘the fiscal emergency.’”

I think it’s fair to say at this point that education aid and “reform” has officially replaced health care as the flashpoint in this year’s budget battle.

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