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 Absence of missing members keenly felt23rd Annual PEF convention held in Niagara Falls By SHERRY HALBROOK A somber cloud hung over hundreds of PEF delegates who gathered last month in Niagara Falls for the union’s 23rd annual convention. The pain of losing 34 members and other loved ones and friends to the terrorist attacks of September was expressed many times, but it was also accompanied by a sense of common purpose and courage. And the delegates gave an enthusiastic welcome to state Comptroller H. Carl McCall, who praised the union’s quick and effective action to help its members following the attack on the World Trade Center. PEF and its president, Roger Benson, “were an inspiration to all of us during this crisis,” McCall said. “I want to say a special thanks to all of you. You served with enormous courage and virtue. Many of you stayed on the job that day in New York City. “We all know the public thinks we get too much money and do too little, until there is a crisis. You do your jobs with professionalism and dedication,” he told the delegates. “You are the heart and soul of this state. You make me proud to be a public servant like you.”  That
dedication to public service is needed now more than ever
before, McCall said. “We can’t let this tragedy
paralyze us. We must take political action. We need good
public policies that meet the needs of New Yorkers. But
nobody is in charge in Albany these days. I’d like
to go back to Albany and turn the lights on and let the
public know there’s a public servant in charge who
listens, who responds and who’s accountable to the
people.”The delegates roared their approval. Gov. George Pataki was also invited to address the convention, but a scheduling conflict prevented his attendance. He told PEF President Roger Benson he would do everything he could to avoid layoffs while cutting $3 billion in state spending over the next 18 months. Honoring fallen members One of the first things the delegates did at the convention was hear a tribute to PEF members who died on September 11, and stand in silence to honor their memory as the names and faces of the victims were shown on large screens. “In many ways we are all victims. “We have all been touched in some way by this tragedy,” said Donna Rodriguez. “As a group, we are now closer than ever before,” said former PEF President Howard Shafer. Later, in a memorial to the 34 PEF members lost at the World Trade Center, the delegates held a candlelight vigil at the falls, where they dropped one white rose into the water for each of the members who died.  State
Assembly Member Francine DelMonte and state Sen. George
Maziarz joined the delegates at the memorial service and
vigil, also praising the dedication and courage of the
union members and others who died simply because they
went to work that day.Contract on their minds The four-day convention was jam-packed with speakers, including political commentator Paul Begala and AFT Northeast Regional Director George Springer, as well as workshops, reports and resolutions.  One resolution that passed calls for PEF to elicit the help of its international affiliates — the American Federation of Teachers and the Service Employees International Union — in drafting a new PS&T contract article to specifically address the special needs of nurses in PEF. Benson announced the appointment of a new PS&T Contract Team for the negotiations that will open in January 2003. Members of the team are: Eric Miller, chair; Olivia Robinson; Rosemary Williams; June Edwards; David Stallone; Joe Tewksbury; Juanita Babcock, Arlea Igoe, Lou Matrazzo, Lola Parks Guerra; Donna Rodriguez and Kartikey Adhvaryu. Benson said that he was putting the team in place now because “it’s important to begin planning for those negotiations today. The Communicator Home Page |
Pensions,
military service concerns Delegates line up PEF’s 2002 legislative targets By SHERRY HALBROOK Delegates to the PEF convention in October fine tuned the list of top issues PEF members want to see addressed legislatively in Albany and Washington. Most of the basic issues remain on the list for years as the union gets lawmakers to chip away at them. And as improvements are made, new objectives are added. This year, the delegates approved two retirement-related additions proposed by the PEF Executive Board. One calls for the state to stop cutting state pension COLAs for surviving dependents by half. And the other calls for “exploring ways to improve the state’s deferred-compensation program.” The delegates also expressed concerns about the need to continue state health-insurance benefits for the dependents of state employees in the military reserves who are called into active service. PEF Director of Contract Administration Robert Carrothers told the delegates that the state has announced its intention to pay the employee’s share of the premium for dependent health insurance for up to a year while the employee is called up for active duty by either the governor or the president. Carrothers said the state also has announced its intention to continue paying its employees called into active military duty in this emergency by the governor or president at full-pay for a time and then to reduce the state pay to a level that will make up the difference between the employee’s military pay and regular state pay. The delegates also passed several resolutions which call on the union to seek legislative or other solutions of certain issues. One such resolution calls for PEF to try to get the state to “establish a new form of employee identification, independent of the Social Security number” for use wherever individual identification is needed, and to remove SS numbers from existing records, other than those related to tax and payroll. In another case, the delegates passed a resolution calling on the union to lobby for further improvements to the law allowing certain veterans in state service to buy service credit in the state pension system for their time spent in military service. |
