Union heads off massive civil-service disaster:
Members' silent vigil speaks volumes at Roswell

By SHERRY HALBROOK
January 1, 1999 marked a critical juncture for Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) in Buffalo as the renowned research and treatment facility crossed the threshold from a state Health Department operation to an independent public-benefit corporation.

But for PEF members at the institute, December 22, 1998 is even more significant because it was the day they stood up and demanded the respect their work and professionalism deserve.
When they did that they also took PEF Division 196 across the threshold to a new level of respect from members and management as a real force to be reckoned with.
Although PEF had negotiated legal protections in 1997 for its 850 Roswell members' pay levels and state-pension status, in December many members found the institute's proposed new civil-service structure and profit-driven operational policies threatened to endanger their careers and the quality of research and
patient care.

Demanding respect
On December 22 nearly 80 scientists, doctors, nurses and other PEF members at Roswell held a "silent" vigil and then spoke out at a meeting of the RPCI Merit Board which was considering adoption of the proposed rules and regulations for the new civil-service system.

"It was impressive," said Division 196 Council Leader Jim Pazik. "The board members' eyes opened wide when they saw so many people filing into the room. In fact, we had to rotate because campus security would let only 30 of our people in at one time.

"We addressed the board, and we prevailed," Pazik said.
PEF persuaded the Merit Board not to adopt all of the proposed new rules and regulations without comment, as management requested. Instead, the board made the adoption "interim" for those sections disputed by PEF.

PEF Director of Civil Service Enforcement Tom Cetrino told the Merit Board that PEF is prepared to go to court to block some of the proposed rules and regulations that would violate the state's constitution, state Civil Service Law and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute Corporation Act.
Cetrino had also sent to RPCI General Counsel Michael Sexton a 38-page document detailing PEF's concerns and comments on the proposal.
And Cetrino had notified Anthony Woods, director of classification and compensation at RPCI, of the union's concerns and objections regarding proposed classification standards for job titles in the new civil-service system.

"How could they justify saying the state-civil-service standards have been off all these years by as much as nine grade levels on some of these titles?' Pazik asked one board member after the meeting.

Protect professionalism
Pazik said the proposed changes to the classification and compensation standards would make it difficult to recruit and retain well-qualified scientists and research-support staff, while concentrating resources on a few very highly paid "superstars."

And those proposed changes would open the door to reassigning nurses to work on hospital units providing services and care for which they have not been trained and are not certified.
"Everything we do here is at a very sophisticated and specialized level," said Pazik a research scientist. "For example, our pharmacists must receive months of specialized training before they are ready to dispense the high-powered and sometimes experimental drugs used in chemo-therapy and other cancer treatments here. But the new policies don't recognize that. Trying to operate our pharmacy like one at an ordinary hospital is courting disaster."

"People come here to receive the most advanced treatments and therapies even while they are still undergoing trials and are not available elsewhere," said Pazik. "But some of the new civil-service proposals and operating policies would blight both the research and the treatment program."

Time to work together
On December 18, in a letter to Roswell Park President Dr. David Hohn, PEF President Roger Benson also warned the union is prepared to go to court to protect its members' rights and the quality of research and patient care at the institute.

Benson urged Hohn to meet with PEF leaders in early January to discuss these issues and work with the union to develop a system and policies that are lawful, fair to employees and will support continued top-quality research and patient care.

As this issue of The Communicator goes to press in mid-January, Hohn has not responded.
"Our members want to see progress. If management doesn't agree to start working with us on these problems soon, our division will have to consider additional actions to move things along," Pazik said.

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