Gov. Andrew Cuomo followed the Con Ed lockout situation closely, even as he publicly remained above the fray, AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento told Fred Dicker on his Talk-1300 radio show this morning.

Cilento praised the governor for becoming involved in and ultimately resolving the labor dispute between unionized utility workers and the company’s management just before what was forecast as a major storm hit the metropolitan area.

“The governor followed the lockout situaiton closely and I know that because I was involved in conversations with him and his staff daily,” Cilento said.

Cuomo had been criticized in some areas for not stepping in to resolve the lockout dispute up until this week.

Cilento defended Cuomo’s initial hesitance to get involved.

“It’s knowing when to get involved in something like this, that’s really the key,” he said. “These are private-sector negotiations so he had to be careful to inject himself into it.”

Cilento told Dicker that the circumstances changed with the storm.

“Leadership is knowing when to get involved and then taking positive pro-active action. I don’t think anyone does that better than the governor,” he said. “These are not like negotiations with the public sector where the governor is at the other end of the table. He’s a participant.”

He added: “He was a third party to it, the thing is he got his usual result which is resolution to the matter. So I don’t necessarily know if it was stunning to people who were close it.”

Indeed, as the storm approached, the governor, as he often does, was able to seize on the potential crisis in order to get an outcome to his satisfaction.

And yesterday’s episode also followed a very hard and fast Cuomo rule about making deals: Everyone — especially the governor — came out looking good.

 

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