Private-sector unit voting on new pact
Bargaining pays off for AIDS Outreach members

By SHERRY HALBROOK
PEF members in the AIDS Outreach Program (AOP) bargaining unit at National Development and Research Institutes Inc. (NDRI) are voting on a new contract that will put more money in their pockets and improve other terms and conditions at their New York City worksites.

The AOP Unit is one of the few private-sector groups represented by PEF. NDRI is mainly funded through federal and state contracts and grants.

Tentative agreement was reached July 8 in contract talks with NDRI that began in April 2002.

The PEF Executive Board voted at its August meeting in Albany to send the three-year pact to the AOP Unit members for ratification. Their previous contract ran out June 30, 2002.

With less than three months of bargaining under its belt, the PEF negotiating team — headed by PEF Downstate Field Services Director Kali Zervos and field representative Carlos Arroyo — secured a 4.25 percent “performance enhancement bonus” for the unit’s members which they received in July 2002. The bonus was based on current salary and the number of months worked during the 2002 contract year.

“We didn’t stop there,” Zervos said. “We kept negotiating while we dug into the possibility that we could tap into federal Substance Abuse Prevention money flowing to NDRI through the state Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services.

“We struck pay dirt,” Arroyo said, “when we found out it could be used to give our members 3 percent raises based on the increased cost of living.”

Under the tentative agreement, members would get the 3 percent increase to their base pay, retroactive to December 1, 2002.

NDRI also committed to renegotiating wages each year of the contract, and to continue providing the performance enhancement bonuses, through expanded authority to move unexpended funds among budget line items in grants and contracts.

The members would also have the chance to save on their income taxes by using pre-tax earnings to pay for their bus, subway and other public transportation.

And NDRI would no longer routinely require the members to submit a doctor’s note for illness- and injury-based absences of three days or more.

“This is a great example of how a determined, patient, resourceful approach to bargaining can really pay off for our members,” said PEF President Roger Benson. “This unit can be proud of what they accomplished.”

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