Governor Pataki has drawn our criticism from time to time for his excesses of generosity with some of the state’s public-employee unions. So we’re tempted to interpret it as an encouraging sign that the governor, in his new fiscally conservative mode, has managed to run one of the unions out of the state — even out of the country. The Public Employees Federation, which represents 54,000 state workers, will hold its annual convention this September in Montreal. The Associated Press dispatch from Albany quotes a spokeswoman for the union as saying the labor leaders decided they shouldn’t “be spending money in the state of New York so the governor can treat us badly.” The labor leaders, who endorsed Mr. Pataki for governor when he ran last year, will no doubt feel right at home amid the French-speakers in Quebec.

The next time Republican politicians set out to purchase the goodwill of the public-sector unions with scarce tax dollars, they might recall the words of the state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, Mark Alesse, whom the wire quotes as calling the union’s decision to decamp to Montreal “shameful.” “What were they thinking?” he asked. “Those are our tax dollars and they could be used to strengthen our state’s economy. Instead, the hard-working taxpayers of New York get the back of the hand from PEF.” We’re all for public-sector workers having the right to organize and bargain collectively and convene where they please, but their bargaining power is linked to their political support. If labor keeps up a pattern of moves like decamping to Montreal in a tiff, state employees may find themselves looking for alternative employment on the Canadian side of the border, because the patience of the paying public and even the politicians will start to wear thin.