PEF's 30th Convention: Stronger Every Day

THE CUP — Vice President Pat Baker holds up the COPE Cup trophy.

Delegates boost power in PEF’s political punch

“Got COPE?” was the question delegates were asked every day at PEF’s 30th Annual Convention held in mid-September in Rochester.

It’s a plea to invest dollars, time and political skills in electing strong, effective candidates to lead the country through the troubled times ahead. The appeal reaches beyond the delegates to all members, and it will continue even after the general election in November. Contributors receive buttons that say, “I COPED.”

COPE — Committee on Political Education — is a special fund made up entirely of voluntary contributions. By law, it’s the only money PEF can use to support candidates for president or Congress.

A PEF COPE Cup Challenge was announced by PEF Vice Presidents Pat Baker and Joe Fox as a new competition among the 12 PEF regions to see which one rallies the highest level of support for COPE among its members. Each year, the winning region will display the COPE Cup trophy at its regional PEF office.

The PEF officers kicked off the challenge by publicly signing cards to authorize increasing their bi-weekly contributions to COPE.

“As your officers, we’re not just talking the talk, we’re walking the walk,” Baker said.

When the convention ended September 17, Baker reported 314 delegates had authorized new or increased COPE contributions that will add $17,070 to PEF’s political punch every year. Region 5 walked away with the COPE Cup for this year, with Region 9 running a close second.

“We are only as strong as our members’ participation,” said Fox, who chairs the PEF Political Action Committee. “We need your COPE contributions and we need you all to help work on the Barack Obama campaign and the congressional and state legislative contests as well.

“Tell your members about the importance of joining COPE and of volunteering for these campaigns,” Fox said. (See related article.)

Please Note: It is up to individual members to decide whether they want to contribute to COPE and how much. The union is prohibited by law from discriminatory treatment of members based on their participation in COPE or lack of it.

STORIES By SHERRY HALBROOK
Nearly 800 delegates converged on Rochester in mid-September for the four-day 30th Annual PEF Convention.
They expanded their contacts, insights, knowledge, skills and goals. They became stronger union leaders and they made PEF stronger.

That’s what it was all about – Making PEF Stronger Every Day – this year’s convention theme.

It was a marathon of long days packed with speakers, reports, meetings, workshops, luncheons, a solidarity rally, competitions, awards and exhibits, as well as social events.

The convention ended with the delegates still debating resolutions. They returned to their homes with their heads and convention bags crammed with information and ideas for meeting the challenges that lay between them and the 2009 PEF convention to be held in Niagara Falls.

President Ken Brynien set their course for achieving safer and healthier worksites, establishing an institute to develop and nurture a new generation of leaders for PEF at all levels, and protecting members’ jobs and the services they provide as the state and nation move into a period of deep fiscal uncertainty. (See related article.)

Mid-year state budget cuts to head off deficits were given grim emphasis Monday morning when the news broke that two of the biggest financial titans of Wall Street could not pay their bills and were faced with selling out or bankruptcy. Tuesday, the news broke that insurance giant AIG was also about to go under.

DiNapoli: Stay unified
The financial news was just beginning to circulate on the convention floor Monday when the delegates welcomed their first guest speaker, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who said the state derives a large part of its tax revenues from Wall Street.

“We’re going to get through these tough times because we’re going to be intelligent,” he said. “We need to use a scalpel. This is not a time to slash and burn. And the only way to make smart choices is if PEF and labor are at the table and part of the discussions.”

The comptroller saluted PEF for working hard to keep “public services public, rather than privatizing them – an important issue for both service and cost.”

DiNapoli also praised the PEF members at his agency.
“Their professionalism kept the office (of the State Comptroller) focused and working through difficult times,” he said.

DiNapoli said the state pension funds are generally doing well in spite of the general financial turmoil and added that he wants state law amended to give him more flexibility in investing.

He said he does not want New York to give up the defined-benefit pension system for defined contributions, the way many businesses are doing.

“Just because corporations have abandoned their commitment to their retired employees doesn’t mean governments should do the same thing,” DiNapoli said.

Brynien thanked DiNapoli for refusing to turn over confidential information about state employees to the news media even in the face of a lawsuit over the issue by the Times Union in Albany.

“Transparency is very important for the public and taxpayers,’ DiNapoli responded, “but the Times Union was asking about Social Security numbers and the home addresses of state employees.

“We said, ‘No. There are still boundaries, even for public employees.’ We’re being sued over it, but we’re going to stand tough.”

Wrong end of tax code
Keynote speaker David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer prize winning investigative journalist and author from the Rochester area, told the delegates they are right to be very worried about whether they and their fellow members will be able to keep their jobs.

Big corporations and the super wealthy hate government regulation, he said, and exploit the tax system to put the burden of supporting government on the backs of those least able to pay for it.

“Business leaders say, ‘Take away the laws and let us regulate ourselves,’” Johnston said.

“We’ve been privatizing gains and socializing losses. In New York and all across America a large share of tax dollars never get to the public coffers,” Johnston said.

Johnston has written two bestsellers on the subject:
• “Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense;” and
• “Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich and Cheat Everybody Else.”

Johnston attacked multi-million-dollar tax breaks and publicly funded grants bestowed on the super wealthy at the expense of the middle class and the poor.

He cited the gift of park land taken from a poor section of the Bronx and given to George Steinbrenner to build a new professional-league sports stadium. Johnston said the gift is worth between $875 million and $1 billion.

“The primary reason for it (building the luxurious new stadium to replace the existing one) was for sky boxes with private ramps and entrances for the celebrities and super wealthy to use,” Johnston said. “They are taxing you so rich people won’t have to mingle with the rest of us. Everyone in this room is paying for it.”

Johnston also criticized the federal Alternative Minimum Tax.
Johnston urged the delegates to inform themselves and their members about the situation before it’s too late.

Job security fight continues
PEF presented its Privatization Buster of the Year award to Vice President Pat Baker.

“As PEF’s labor-management coordinator and as the chair of its Job Security Committee, Pat has worked tirelessly to protect members’ jobs,” Brynien said, “and privatization is one of the greatest threats to their jobs.”

In accepting the award, Baker praised members who have the courage to fight privatization at their worksites and agencies.

“It’s not an easy thing to do, because you are fighting management and exposing the wasteful things it is doing,” she said.

“We can never, ever sleep. We have to fight for our job security every day,” Baker said.

Joseph Robach and Susan John, who represent the Rochester area in the state Senate and Assembly, respectively, welcomed the delegates and echoed Baker’s call for continued action. They each have sponsored PEF bills to increase transparency and accountability in the award of state contracts.

“By working to get the facts out there, you’ve shown you do a great job for a great price,” Robach said.

“Now, we’re having real progress in putting standards and guidelines in place,” John said, to help avoid “the danger of the flimflam – buy it cheap now and then we’ve got you.”

Time to tackle housing
The delegates approved the agendas of state and federal legislative issues recommended by the PEF Political Action Committee and the Executive Board. However, the delegates also approved several resolutions that expand the union’s legislative issues. (See article.)

Delegate Luis Acosta of the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal in New York City proposed PEF should seek legislation to give state employees discounts on their rent or home mortgages in areas where housing costs are prohibitively high.

Acosta said his office at HCR cannot keep up with the public’s need for help with housing issues.

He also said DC 37, which represents employees of NYC, obtained 5 percent discounts for them in city-owned housing, and he said housing has traditionally been a negotiated benefit for employees in both the private and public sectors.

Ian Dale of the state Banking Department was opposed, saying, “It’s just not right. We should not jump in front of everyone else.”

Stanley Byer of the state Department of Environmental Conservation in Albany said he supported it because he often works with PEF members “in the Bronx who can’t afford to live anywhere near where they work” and, therefore, must endure very long, expensive daily commutes.

The majority of delegates agreed with Acosta and adopted the motion.