CONTRACT ISSUES — Roswell Park nurse Marianne Jerla
(above left) and Dr. Bejaiinder Srivastava (above right)
talk with PEF V.P. Ken Brynien and Director of Labor
Relations Roger Scales at a contract meeting. —
Photos by Caroline Esposito
Members discuss
top workplace concerns
PS&T
contract team shares good news on TransitChek, sick-leave
By SHERRY
HALBROOK
As PEF’s PS&T contract team travels the state to
meet with members in every region, it has some good news
to give them even before negotiations begin in January on
a successor agreement to the current pact which expires
April 1, 2003.
President Roger Benson has been working closely with the
state Director of Employee Relations George Madison to
reach an agreement on a new TransitChek benefit to save
members money on their commuting costs.
“We have agreed to launch a TransitChek pilot
program in lower Manhattan very soon,” Benson said,
“and expect to be able to give our members the
details shortly.”
Progress on sick leave
PEF and the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations
already have a handshake agreement that early in the next
round of contract negotiations, the state will extend to
PEF 13 days of sick leave to include all full-time
PS&T unit members.
“This will address a long-standing inequity for our
members hired after April 1, 1982 who currently earn 10
days of annual sick leave,” said PEF Vice President
Ken Brynien, chair of the PS&T Contract Team.
“This issue has been near the top of our
members’ concerns in virtually every survey PEF has
conducted over the past 10 years,” said PEF Director
of Labor Relations Roger Scales, chief PS&T
negotiator. “Some members in the same job title,
performing exactly the same work, have been receiving
different sick-leave benefits based on when they were
hired.”
Up until now, PEF has been unable to resolve this
problem, even though it has raised the issue in
negotiations for every PS&T contract since 1985.
“The state has always demanded PEF agree to reduce
the current $1,250 and $2,500 longevity awards, which it
traded for in 1982,” Scales said. “This new
handshake agreement will not involve any trade-off from
PEF.”
When the governor addressed the PEF Executive Board in
August, he pledged to address this inequity and is now
living up to that commitment.
The agreement was reached in discussions that began
earlier this year and concluded in August. Scales and
Brynien cautioned that the agreement will not be binding
until it is reduced to writing and signed by both parties
— something that is expected to happen this winter.
Hot topics
Meanwhile, the committee has been hearing from many
PS&T members about their workplace concerns.
Scales said some of the issues that have been raised most
often relate to:
• Salary;
• Sick leave;
• Health-care costs;
• Lack of dentists participating in the Empire Plan;
• Short staffing;
• Hazardous-duty pay;
• Shift pay;
• Location pay and downstate adjustments.
AFT lends
experienced hand for PS&T talks
 Thanks to its international
affiliate, the American Federation of Teachers,
PEF’s PS&T Contract Team has the benefit of one
of AFT’s most experienced negotiators.
“Anthony Wildman will be with us from the beginning
to end of our negotiations,” said PEF Director of
Labor Relations Roger Scales, the union’s chief
negotiator for the PS&T contract talks expected to
begin next January.
“Tony has already participated in our team’s
training and in many meetings of the team and with
members at our regional contract meetings,” Scales
said. “Tony is our liaison with AFT and will help us
draw on its resources and expertise, especially on
nursing issues.”
Wildman, who is director of higher education services at
New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), is no stranger to
negotiating with the Governor’s Office of Employee
Relations.
“I know most of the people at GOER from the 13 years
I spent as deputy director and then director of field
services at United University Professions,” Wildman
said.
His early teaching career at the high school and college
level quickly involved him in local negotiations, Wildman
said.
“Back in the 1960s and ’70s, lots of us got
involved in negotiating local contracts. And in 1976
NYSUT asked me to come to work for them,” he added.
“Since then, AFT has sent me all over the country
— to Florida, Alaska, New Jersey, California and
West Virginia, to name a few — to help with
negotiations. I still love it. I guess I’m just a
born negotiator.”
In addition to taking part in contract meetings, Wildman
said he has sat in on arbitration of some of the
important grievances PEF has filed related to the current
PS&T pact which expires April 1, 2003.
“I am already very impressed by the PEF members on
this contract team, and by the high level of
professionalism of PEF’s staff,” he said.
— Sherry Halbrook
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Inside This
Issue:
Features
PEF dedicates memorial to
fallen members
Union marshals forces behind
candidates
Early retirement agency
options
PS&T contract team
shares good news
AFT lends experience for
PS&T talks
Departments
President's Message: PEF
unity best tribute
You Said It: Member's
letters this month
Member Mobilization: Fully
mobilized divisions
Legislative Action: More PEF
bills are law
Nurses' Station:
Needlesticks, act now
Health Notes: Flex
Spending/Dependent Care
Retirees In Action: On the
move nationally
Health & Safety: Coping
with worksite disaster
Member Highlights: picture
page
PEF Membership Benefits
Program & Travel Corp
Union Matters
Reg. 7 members earn SEFA
awards
Fineson member earns
employee award
Nominees for Reg. 12
coordinator sought
Training grants help members
Tri-County Labor Council
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