HERE’S HOW — PEF President Roger Benson tells AFT delegates at July convention in Philadelphia how PEF mobilized its members. — Photo by John Epting
PEF must build on its contract, legislative successes
Time to invest in our future
By ROGER E. BENSON
With ratification of the PS&T contract, we have concluded what has been one of the most successful contract campaigns in PEF’s history.
Our success has flowed into our legislative initiatives, as well, with the passage and signing of legislation for COLA and pension enhancements, as well as passage of many more of our initiatives which still await the governor’s signature.
We achieved this success by involving members and focusing our resources on achieving our goals.
We have been asked what PEF’s priorities will be over the next three years of our administration. The answer is simple: We will continue to work to build PEF’s strength, to fulfill our mission to “Provide the leadership necessary for PEF members to achieve employment security, higher wages, better working conditions, and improved retirement benefits.”
PEF is a leader. We repeatedly raised the bar on the state’s contract offer. We pushed for pension justice and COLA when no one else thought they were attainable. Moreover, we were the first statewide union to propose pension enhancements as a part of contract negotiations.
We must continue to lead and build PEF’s strength to enable us to build the coalitions that are necessary to succeed in our mission. Our goals remain: to bring about better contracts; to improve the working conditions of our members, particularly in the critical area of understaffing; and to continue to fight for pension reform.
As successful as we have been, we cannot rest. To move forward, we must have adequate funding. A dues change has been proposed to provide the resources needed to effectively fight for even better contracts, proper staffing and to make political leaders accountable to us.
Of course, interests such as state management, big business and those pressing for the privatization of government services oppose changes that will build our strength because it is to their advantage to keep workers weak and salaries low and to erode benefits.
While no one wants to increase dues, we must do what it takes to build strength for our future; anything less would not be responsible leadership.
We must make an investment to build our strength to prepare for the struggles we know are coming. We must resist the knee-jerk urge to oppose an increase and, instead, look to what we have accomplished and ask ourselves, do we want to continue to lead? Or, do we want to fall back and become a passive victim of circumstance?
The choice is ours and the choice is clear.