Apr 10, 2009 — Governor Paterson and the public employee unions are playing a game of brinkmanship this week. Paterson is threatening to slash more than eight thousand state jobs if the unions don't offer concessions. More than 2,000 jobs at state prisons are on the chopping block. The state's biggest union, the Civil Service Employees Association, rejected an offer that would have meant smaller raises in exchange for a guarantee that no workers would be laid off for two years. CSEA spokesman Stephen Madarasz told the Associated Press that reopening the contract would set a "debilitating precedent." Brian Mann checked in with Don Rowe, head of NYSCOPBA, the union representing hundreds of corrections officers in the North Country.