To the Editor:
I read the letter titled “Is his memory failing him?” in our March Communicator and want to thank the writer.
As a disabled veteran, I’m thankful for my 18 years of work with the state Labor Department that allows me to support my family.
However, I’d like PEF to publish how much the state has “saved” at the expense of its employees and our families.
If we multiplied the number of retirees who have been taking a hit from inflation from 1970 on, and then added the massive financial drawdown from state employees, we would see the huge windfall for New York state.
When I went through four years of no raises in the 1990s, I probably lost approximately $1,200 a year. That would mean I was losing about $5,000 dollars of gross pay every year by the end of that decade. In 10 years, that would equal $50,000 dollars more the state was keeping from just one employee. The state also has had years of use of my lagged pay. Multiply that by hundreds of thousands of state employees.
Now, the state wants us to relinquish our raises this year, and loan it another week’s pay. This would be a bigger sacrifice than most people recognize.
The public needs to realize public employees are not here to suck from their wallets while they are unemployed or wondering about their own futures. We are not their enemies. We are their neighbors, part of the family of American citizens. We are the public, and we suffer when it suffers.
Please inform the “outside” world how many state employees are left from the 1990s, who are still losing thousands of dollars every year because of those years we went without raises. Let’s put these numbers in the public limelight.
Thank you PEF and The Communicator for helping to get this information out.
GREGORY WARNER
Plattsburgh
Editor’s note: Giving up an annual raise is not a one-year sacrifice. When PEF members lose a pay raise, that loss is compounded every year they work and every year they draw a pension. A year without a pay raise means a lifetime of loss.
TB still major health threat
To the Editor:
March 24 was World TB day. At the state Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services we try to educate people about tuberculosis and encourage the fight against this major killer.
Perhaps PEF can encourage all our health care members to get once-a-year TB screening, including skin TB testing or a blood test for those who have tested positive for TB test in the past. Most counties in New York state have a department of TB control.
NAYYERA MALIK, MD
New York
Editor’s Note: Employers in New York state must provide annual TB screening for their employees who are at high risk of exposure to TB on the job.
The Communicator Letters policy
We welcome letters to the editor about union issues and events relevant to PEF's diverse membership. All letters are subject to editing for space, fairness and good taste.
Please keep them brief (up to one page, double-spaced or a maximum of 250 words), and please include your name and phone number for verification.
Send letters to thecommunicator@pef.org:
The Communicator
Public Employees Federation
P.O. Box 12414
Albany, N.Y. 12212-2414
Email to Sherry Halbrook, Editor or Darcy Wells, Editor-In Chief
