 My car is on ‘E’ works at Sunmount By DARCY WELLS Filling up your vehicle can be quite painful these days with gas prices climbing near $3 per gallon. Filling your tank to conduct home visits as part of your job without reimbursement adds insult to injury. At Sunmount Developmental Disabilities Services Office, PEF Division 242 members filled their gas tanks without reimbursement for three months, until a mileage awareness campaign put the brakes on the practice. Council Leader Ed Snow started hearing from a group of members who work out of the Potsdam office that they were no longer willing to give the DDSO a “free ride.” “I contacted the administrator by e-mail,” Snow said. “My message said members would be unable and unwilling to carry the burden of the non-payment of mileage on their backs.” The protests fell on deaf ears as did requests by Pat Smith, PEF’s labor-management chair for the Office of Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD). In January, members mobilized and turned up the heat. “We placed bright yellow posters that read ‘My car is on E’ with a graphic of a gas gauge,” Snow said. The posters were distributed to all PEF members at the Potsdam office to display in their parked cars on January 22, the day Snow had a meeting with the Sunmount director. The awareness campaign produced immediate results. “The director saw our signs and got our message loud and clear,” Snow said. “That very same day, I was informed OMRDD had authorized funds effective that day’s date to pay all outstanding mileage reimbursements,” Snow said. “I was also told future payments would be made in accordance with the rules of the Office of the State Comptroller. “The power of mobilization and our members to gather around an issue shows what we do as a union,” Snow said. |
Day 142: Revving up to rally! By DEBORAH A. MILES When Gov. Eliot Spitzer took office on “Day One” – January 1, he talked a lot about reform and changes. The PEF Statewide Nurses Committee also has a vision of hope and reform for 2007. Its plan is in the works now, and aims for a cumulative effect on “Day 142” of the Spitzer administration, May 22 — the date of the multi-union nurses’ rally at the state Capitol. “Our main issue is to finally put an end to mandatory overtime and create safe staffing levels in hospitals and other heath care facilities throughout New York,” said Dee Dodson, committee chair and Region 12 coordinator. “We have gathered, marched and shouted to the former governor and legislators about the terrible things that happen because of mandatory overtime. We all know what they are, and so do the lawmakers. That’s why 16 other states have enacted laws that address better patient care and safe-staffing levels that also promote recruitment and retention of nurses, and a dignified health care system.” Committee member and mental health nurse Debbie Egel said the May 22 rally will be an unprecedented event because PEF will join forces with the Service Employees International Union, NYS United Teachers, NYS Nurses Association and the Communication Workers of America. Wake up, act “This event is designed to show the governor and legislators the power of labor cannot be ignored as it has been in the past,” Egel said. “When they see hundreds of union health care workers chanting ‘end mandatory overtime on Day 142,’ may they hear the message loud, clear and for the last time. This is the year for action and reform, according to the governor. “On his inauguration day, Gov. Spitzer said New York has slept through much of the past decade, just like Rip Van Winkle. Let’s see if our rally cries wake up the remaining lawmakers of the Rip Van Winkle era and get them to move forward.” PEF nurses who participate at the 11:15 a.m. rally will also visit state Senate and Assembly members, urging them to pass the mandatory overtime bill, S.125/A.1898, and the safe-staffing bill, S.1551/A.6119. No more fatal errors “The crusade to get these bills passed began almost a decade ago, with just a few dozen protesters,” said Jemma Marie-Hanson, Region 11 coordinator and committee member. “Some members of the Legislature have backed these bills, and we are grateful to them for their support and concern about quality patient care. They are the ones who understand that working two or three shifts in a row may cause a fatal error. “For whatever reasons, these bills have inched their way forward in the legislative process. It’s time they became law,” Hanson said. If you are unable to attend the rally and want to help, log on to the PEF Web site and send a fax to your legislators and governor, urging them to pass the mandatory overtime and safe-staffing bills. |
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