DEMANDING
FAIRNESS - PEF Region 11 Coordinator Pat Baker leads
members at 55 Hansen Place in Brooklyn in a noon contract
rally in December. - Photos by Robert Jackson
Brooklyn
PEF members blast Gov.'s offer
State
workers rally for fair contract
By
DENYCE DUNCAN LACY
Dozens of the state's professional, scientific and
technical workers from Region 11 gave up their lunch hour
in December to hold a demonstration outside the state
office building at 55 Hansen Place, venting their anger
over the lack of progress on contract talks with the
state.
Among the demonstrators chanting and carrying rally
placards were vocational education counselors, human
rights specialists, tax and finance experts, parole
officers, and social security analysts, who told
reporters they were angry over the lack of progress on
contract negotiations with the state.
The workers also distributed leaflets to passersby urging
them to call Gov. George Pataki and demand he offer state
workers a fair contract.
"This contract fight is about money, fairness and
respect," said PEF Region 11 Coordinator Patricia
Baker. "We're the people who actually do the work,
serving the public, and we want the same consideration as
that given to the governor's top staff."
Baker said members in her region - like others across the
state - are angry because the governor's contract
negotiators are refusing to budge from their 3 percent
salary-raise offer, even though the governor and his top
staff got raises of 38 percent.
The members also oppose the Pataki Administration's
demands for several union concessions, including the
proposals to delay the raises until October of each year
and increase employees' health insurance costs.
Facility downstate's main treatment
center for autism
PEF
members mobilize community to defend Howard Park Unit
By
SHERRY HALBROOK
When you see trouble coming, don't hide, get out there
and head it off before it can hurt you. That's the
approach PEF members at the Howard Park Unit of Bernard
Fineson Developmental Center in Queens are taking to
state plans to close their operation.
Last year, in it's five-year plan, the state Office of
Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD)
announced its intention to shut down Howard Park. But PEF
members worry the end will be sooner if they don't act
swiftly and vigorously to block it.
"We started last year to try to head off the
closing," said PEF Region 11 Coordinator Pat Baker.
"We went to New York City Councilman Alphonso
Stabile for help and he met with community residents and
the parents and families of clients at Howard Park to
discuss the issue."
The result, she said, has been a growing tide of support
for Howard Park, which is home to 100 developmentally
disabled people of all ages and which provides outpatient
services to another 80 clients.
Howard
Park "home" to many
Sandra Brown, a PEF steward and teacher at Howard Park,
said about 80 percent of its clients are autistic and
range in age from 8 years old to middle-aged adults. It
is the only developmental center in the New York City
area with a unit specifically for autism.
"Many of the older clients grew up here. It's the
only home they know. They've stayed here because we're
geared to meet their specific needs," Brown said.
OMRDD's plan, Brown said, calls for transferring many of
the clients to Bernard Fineson's Hillside Unit, which is
located on the campus of Creedmoor Psychiatric Center
about 15 miles from the Howard Park Unit, which is in the
Howard Beach section of Queens - a conservative,
Republican neighborhood.
Brown said she worries that Hillside Unit would not be
well suited to the needs of the patients at Howard Park.
"Many of the clients with the most severe behavior
problems at Bernard Fineson are sent to the Hillside
Unit," Brown said.
It's more therapeutic, she said, to keep Howard Park's
clients in the familiar environment where they are
confident and comfortable, and where they know and trust
the staff. Having to adjust to an entirely new
environment and staff would take a long time for some
clients, she added.
Strong
community support
"The community doesn't want Howard Park
closed," Brown said. "It has been here more
than 25 years. A lot of kids from the local schools and
colleges come here to work as volunteers or interns. And
many of our staff members live in Howard Beach and don't
want to commute all the way to Creedmoor."
The approximately 300 employees, including 100 PEF
members, who work at Howard Park are also an important
part of the local economy according to a letter Stabile
sent to OMRDD head Thomas Maul.
Stabile recently held a press conference to publicize the
concerns about the threat to Howard Park. Joining Stabile
and PEF members at the conference were representatives of
New York Families for Autistic Children Inc., the
clients' families and community groups.
The mother of a girl who has been at Howard Park for some
time, told reporters she values the high quality of care
state employees give her daughter at Howard Park and does
not want to see the facility closed.
Stabile said he has received many calls and letters from
residents of Howard Beach and nearby Ozone Park who want
the facility to remain open.
"All too often we hear about facilities, such as the
Fineson Center or rehabilitation clinics, being opposed
in different neighborhoods," Stabile wrote to
Commissioner Maul. "We see and hear about the 'not
in my backyard' mentality when such a center is
announced. But here we have two communities that have
banded together to say they support the center and want
to help prevent its doors from being closed
permanently."
Baker said the union will now expand its lobbying efforts
to state lawmakers representing the community and those
on the Assembly and Senate mental hygiene committees.
"We've had a great response from the community and
Councilman Stabile," Baker said. "I hope the
legislators will be sensitive to this issue, too."