Members at NDRI ratify AOP contract

PEF members at NDRI (National Development and Research Inc.) in its Aids Outreach Program (AOP) bargaining unit unanimously ratified a new four-year contract.

The contract, which was ratified at a July 18 meeting in Manhattan, is retroactive to July 1, 2005.

NDRI’s AOP operation receives all of its funding through the state Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) on a five-year basis.

Under the new contract, NDRI and PEF have jointly asked OASAS for additional funds to provide pay raises of: 3 percent retroactive to July 1, 2005; and 3 percent retroactive to July 1, 2006.

Members will receive a 2.5 percent raise October 1, 2006. And on July 1 of 2007 and 2008, the agreement calls for annual cost-of-living pay raises of at least 3 percent, based on the national Urban Consumer Price Index for the prior year.

It currently appears all or part of the retroactive raises will be funded. However, if OASAS doesn’t come through with the money for the retroactive raises, the contract calls for reopening the salary negotiations.

Additionally, NDRI will continue paying 90 percent of the cost of health benefits premiums for individual employee coverage, and 75 percent of the premium cost for family coverage. That includes prescription drug coverage under the NYS Health Insurance Program.

PEF’s director of field services downstate, Marvin Moschel, and PEF field representative Corrado Cotumaccio were the union’s chief negotiators and PEF Division 501 Council Leader Gwendolyn Merritt led the contract team.
— Sherry Halbrook