Mobilization, newsletter, lobbying; keys to success
DOT members victorious in fight-back campaign to halt job transfers
By DEBORAH A. MILES
PEF members at the state Department of Transportation (DOT) proved that determination, teamwork and a statewide legislative lobbying effort can bring results.
The victory involves a major adjustment to a DOT plan called “transformation,” which might have forced hundreds of employees to relocate.
DOT unveiled the plan in 2004. It featured the establishment of program support centers (PSCs) in Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, Poughkeepsie and a satellite on Long Island. Had the PSCs been implemented, it would have taken between 2,000 and 2,500 employees to staff these centers, possibly forcing more than 1,800 employees to relocate and move their families.
PEF leaders at DOT saw red flags from the beginning, started working immediately to address this situation and developed a statewide fight-back campaign.
“Participation and mobilization are the keys to success,” said William Holthausen, a PEF Executive Board representative from DOT.
To get the word out to members about the PSCs, PEF’s DOT labor-management team developed a statewide newsletter,
The DOTimes. “Our newsletter informed the members about the negative effects the PSCs would have on them, and how they could fight back,” said Lou Ferrone Jr., PEF L-M chair at DOT.
“The fight-back consisted of members lobbying and informing their legislators about the negative effects the PSCs would have on their constituencies. The newsletter also provided members with information on out-of-title work and encouraged members to file a grievance if this occurred,” Ferrone said.
Charlie Kelefant, another PEF Executive Board member from DOT, said PEF’s political action liaisons spoke with their local legislators about the plan.
“We put the word out through the grapevine about the effects the PSCs would have in various regions,” Kelefant said.
The word included not only talking to legislators about losing, for example, 220 jobs in Buffalo and more than 100 each in Hornell, Watertown, Binghamton and Utica. but getting the ear of the Association of General Contractors which also opposed the establishment of the
PSCs.
“Their support was the final nail in the coffin of the PSCs. We have nails in the coffin, but still no stake in the heart,” Kelefant said, referring to the entire transformation plan.
Ferrone credited the entire team for this “union victory.”
“Everyone was very instrumental in this challenge and victory. It just shows how successful and empowering a team can be when we are organized, focused and in communication,” he said.
Kelefant also said passing the remaining Go Public legislation is still necessary to defend public services against the privatization aspects of DOT’s transformation plan.
The
Communicator February 2006
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