Lawmakers urging prompt, just settlement
Demand for fair contract growing in Legislature

By SHERRY HALBROOK
A growing number of state lawmakers are responding to PEF’s request for support and are taking up the call for a fair contract for PS&T members and all state employees.
This support from legislators is taking three forms — opposition to contract-related tier reform unless it benefits all state bargaining units; a state Assembly resolution calling on Gov. George Pataki to reach fair state-worker contracts retroactive to April 1, 1999; and individual letters calling for prompt and fair settlements with all of the state-employee unions.

“We deeply appreciate these calls for fair and responsible bargaining,” said PEF President Roger Benson. “State lawmakers do not sit at the bargaining table, but they can put tremendous pressure on the people who do sit there to get down to business and produce a fair and equitable agreement.
“It’s up to our members to impress on their elected representatives just how unfair and hurtful the state’s callous stalling tactics have been. If we each make it clear that we expect our lawmaker’s support, we will get it and we will prevail. Many legislators are already joining us in expressing their impatience with the prolonged and unfruitful negotiations,” Benson said.

Include everyone
After tentative agreements with pension/tier reform provisions were reached in March with two other state bargaining units, one state legislator told the press he could not support legislation to implement the agreements unless it extended to all state employees.
Assembly Member Jack McEneny of Albany, a Democrat, was quoted by the Daily Gazette of Schenectady as saying, “That’s not the way to do a pension deal. It would have to be for everyone.”

Bipartisan resolution
Meanwhile, Republican Assembly Member James Bacalles of Bath expressed his support for PEF’s contract struggle by co-sponsoring a resolution calling on the governor to “reach a fair and equitable settlement.... retroactive to April 1, 1999.”
The resolution was introduced by Assembly Republican David R. Townsend of Oneida County. By late February, 22 Assembly members, including 10 Democrats, had signed on to support the resolution.

“I understand and share your concerns with the long delay and have voiced my distress and those of my constituents to leadership,” Bacalles wrote to PEF President Roger Benson in late February.
“Our Assembly Republican Conference, in support of our state employees, contacted the governor and urged him to reach a fair and equitable contract,” the lawmaker continued. “In addition, our conference urged the governor that any settlement should be retroactive to April 1, 1999 and should not include any givebacks, such as a pay-raise lag.”

“We deeply appreciate their support,” Benson said, “and we hope to see all of the legislators in both houses support it. That would send a very strong bi-partisan message to the governor.”

Voices of reason
State senators have also spoken out on the contract issue.
Brooklyn Democrat Sen. Vincent Gentile was an early voice for reason and fairness. He wrote to state Director of Employee Relations Linda Angello last November, saying that he had been contacted by several concerned constituents who “expressed dismay that the parties involved at the negotiating table have failed to reach an agreement.”
Gentile told Angello, “I urge an expeditious resolution to this impasse. Public employees make up a substantial percentage of New York’s labor force and their dedicated efforts should not be disregarded.”

And state Sen. Neil Breslin, a Democrat representing Albany, voiced his support in a letter to the Times Union, published February 3.
“In November, I joined Assembly members (Ron) Canestrari, (James) McEneny and (Paul) Tonko in a rally to focus on obtaining a fair contract for CSEA and PEF members. We want to support these men and women, and, hopefully, appeal to the governor’s sense of justice. He (Pataki) ignored us, as he has ignored the members of CSEA and PEF for nearly a year. It is outrageous, it is unjust and it is time the governor did right by these workers,” Breslin wrote.

“Many lawmakers have told us privately that they support us and that they have communicated that support to the governor,” Benson said.
“Now, we need them all to step up and be counted,” he said. “We will remember their support when they ask us for ours.”

CAN WE TALK? — State Sen. Thomas Libous reviews the union’s legislative priorities with PEF Region 5 Coordinator Mary Twitchell, right, and his PEF Political Action Liaison Martha Mason, left.

Assembly and Senate side with union on many key budget issues
Lawmakers to PEF: We hear you

By SHERRY HALBROOK
New York’s legislative stew is once again heating up and PEF members are in the thick of it — meeting state lawmakers in the districts, in Albany and even at state worksites to talk about the need for a fair contract, state budget concerns and legislation to protect worker safety.
“Our members have had very positive reactions from the legislators,” said PEF Vice President and Political Action Chair Ken Brynien.
“Between 50 and 60 of our political activists participated in our March lobby day on the state budget,” he said. “And we also had additional members from the state Division of Parole lobbying on their issues, as well as more than 15 PEF nurses who met with lawmakers on legislation affecting them.”
That same week, the state Assembly and Senate each passed their own budget resolutions that stake out their positions on the budget.

The next step is to work out the differences between the two houses and the governor. Overall, both houses would spend more money than the governor proposed, and just resolving how big the total monetary pie is has proved a major stumbling block in previous years.

This year, however, the three parties are less far apart than usual. And they are all proposing tax cuts of various kinds, with the Senate way out in front on this, proposing $1.2 billion in cuts beyond the $714 million put forward by Gov. George Pataki.
Although, PEF chief fiscal analyst Tom Cetrino is still analyzing the full implications of the budget resolutions, many important items were quickly apparent.

Thumbs down on DOJ
Both houses seem to agree with PEF that the governor’s plan to merge a large number of state agencies into a massive new Department of Justice is a poor idea that would undercut legislative oversight of these programs. However, both Brynien and PEF Legislative Director Brian Curran said PEF wants to verify that both houses mean to restore funding to these agencies that was cut as part of the consolidation proposal.

The Assembly wants to make education and training a compulsory part of rehabilitation for state-prison inmates — a strong affirmation of the important role PEF members play in preparing inmates to lead law-abiding, productive lives following their release.

The Assembly would also require alcohol and drug testing of parolees for their first year back in the community. And the Assembly would restore $2.8 million to the budget to keep 66 parole officer and support positions that Pataki proposes to eliminate through attrition.

Perhaps best of all, the Assembly would generally prohibit the state from turning prison operations over to private contractors.
Budget changes proposed by the Senate would have less direct effect on PEF members at the state Department of Correctional Services than
the Assembly’s proposals.

Shared staff supported
Another important area where both houses appear to agree with PEF is the full restoration of the sharing of 149 state mental-health staff with county mental-health programs. The governor tried to wipe out the shared staffing last year, but PEF got the Legislature to restore some of the positions. This year, both houses are ready to restore the remaining positions.

And the Assembly agrees with PEF on the need to kill Pataki’s plan to shift appointing authority in the state Office of Mental Health from facility directors to the regional level — something that could create major transfer and relocation problems for PEF members at that agency.

SED, DOT supported
Members at the state Education Department (SED) who work at the state Library, state Archives and state Museum will be glad to know that lawmakers in both houses are unimpressed by the governor’s proposal to transfer their programs to the state Council on the Arts.

The Assembly would go further and reject Pataki’s plan to merge SED’s Office of Higher and Continuing Education with the state Office of Professions. And the Assembly also wants to restore several important funding and staff cuts Pataki proposed for SED.
PEF engineers at the state Department of Transportation Department will be interested to know that both houses want to boost spending for engineering services at that agency. And the Assembly would require DOT to increase the percentage of state engineers doing the work, as compared to private consultants.

Express yourself
For more information about the status of state budget items that may affect you, contact your PEF labor-management chair or Executive Board member.

“Just because the lawmakers are in agreement with us on many important issues at this point, doesn’t mean we can assume it will all turn out as we would like,” Brynien stressed. “As the lawmakers negotiate with each other and the governor, some of their positions must change and we could be on the losing end if we don’t keep reminding them of how important our budget and legislative priorities are. So, keep calling, writing and e-mailing your legislators to let them know what you want and that you are paying close attention to their actions.”

Members can contact their lawmakers through the PEF website.

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