A tentative contract for the Public Employees Federation is going back to its 52,000 members for a re-vote. The executive committee approved a new, tentative contract that could avoid 3,500 layoffs across the state Capital Tonight's Nick Reisman has more on the agreement.

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ALBANY, N.Y. --The new contract for the Public Employees Federation is going back to its 52,000 members for a re-vote. The executive board of the state's second largest union voted 91 to 18 to approve the re-negotiated agreement that is the first step to avoiding 3,496 state worker layoffs.

"This second revote I think is really an extraordinary step to try to do that. I also think that we've been flexible. We've spent countless hours on this. I know my team has. I know I've spent many hours myself and I'm proud of that," said Governor Andrew Cuomo.

The new contract is for four years as opposed to five, allows for reimbursements for furlough days and includes a provision that allows workers to use vacation time to offset increases in health insurance costs. These are changes the PEF President Ken Brynien says addresses the concerns of the members who voted no on the old agreement last month.

Brynien said, "While this is not costing the state extra money, for this contract, it addresses our concerns that we had and we were able to finally come to an agreement on that. So I would ask our members to now reconsider that we have a new agreement, that better meets their needs and they should vote yes on it."

But Governor Andrew Cuomo also said that this is the last contract he is willing to negotiated with PEF. In other words, if the rank and file vote down his new agreement, the layoffs that are now due to take effect on November 4th.

"I hope the membership passes it on the re-vote. And the spirit is the spirit of the collective and the spirit that makes the union a union, which is people coming together to try to help co-workers," Cuomo said.

Meanwhile, Brynien says the relationship with the governor's office remains a cordial one.

"At this point, we've been talking several times a day and it's been cordial and we've had strong words between each other because we're bargaining, but it's remained professional and we have a working relationship and I think that's important going forward because there's a lot more work we have to do in this state and if we're not working together, we're working against each other and that's not in anybody's best interest," Brynien said.

But there will still be areas of disagreement. The tentative contract does not guarantee job security over the four year lifespan. And PEF says it will continue to push for a tax on the wealthy, a measure Cuomo continues to resist.