(Photo: Getty)

Opposing Governor Andrew Cuomo's pension plan is about to come to Zuccotti Park.

One of New York's public employee unions,  the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, is holding a “Tier It Down!” rally tomorrow afternoon against  Governor Cuomo's "Tier 6" proposal, where new employees would receive scaled down pension benefits in an effort to curb costs.

The rally tomorrow comes as the union is also engaging in a television campaign against Mr. Cuomo's proposal. Other unions have decided to hold their fire, for now, but AFSCME is pushing forward.

Tomorrow's event will feature local public service employees, Reverend Billy and the Church of Earthalujah!, and "The 1707 Steppers (step-dancing daughters of local union members)."

The Zuccotti Park protest comes on "the one-year anniversary of the death of collective bargaining in Governor Scott Walker’s Wisconsin."

The AFL-CIO went on the air today with a new ad blasting Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Albany lawmakers for their efforts to add a sixth tier to the pension system, and blaming the effort on Wall Street fat cats who, the ad states, propelled Mr. Cuomo into office.

"They crashed our economy. We bailed them out. Now Wall Street, big banks and corporate CEO's have teamed up with some politicians in Albany to slash pensions of working New Yorkers by 40 percent," the narrator intones.

The ad conflates a bit two separate problems with the state's pension system--on the one side, the pension fund is suffering due to the crash of the economy, but it is not quite accurate to say that because of that Mr. Cuomo and others who are pushing for reform are only doing so because of the crash. In fact, they often point out that the health of the pension fund isn't so much a short-term as it is a long-term problem.

It is customary during budget season for interest groups to push their agenda through the airwaves and directly to the public. Mr. Cuomo has been able to neutralize this technique during the early days of his term, mostly through coming out with an ad blitz of his own.

It is unclear how large an ad buy this is by the AFL-CIO, but the video can be viewed below:

City Comptroller John Liu told fire fighters their pension deals were "sacred" and should not be "messed with." (photo credit: azi paybarah / observer)

City Comptroller John Liu -- who worked out with New York City firemen Saturday yesterday and donned a helmet at their conference today - got a standing ovation when he vowed to protect union pension benefits.

Liu, who is likely to run for mayor in 2013, told the audience gathered at the Hilton this morning, "There are some people in New York City and across the country who have talked about how we can't uphold the deal we made with our workers."

"When people talk about we have to eliminate some of the pay that many years ago were bargained and fought for by our fire officers and fire fighters, I say no," said Liu. "A deal is a deal."

In response, the attendees of the conference -- representing firemen from across the country and Canada -- gave Liu and immediate standing ovation.

Liu went on to describe the pension deal the city made years ago with firemen as "sacred" and should not be "messed with." The comptroller said undermining firemen's confidence in the city's ability to protect them and their families in case they get injured on the job could "undermine" their confidence "and put the greater public at risk."

This is, basically, the opposite reaction the union had to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. The union screened a video which showed footage of Christie as an announcer described politicians who were "phonies with an extremist political agenda."

Liu spoke after President Bill Clinton's keynote speech slamming Texas Governor Rick Perry, the newly announced Republican presidential candidate.