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 Vows days of ‘Roll over, PEF’ are past Benson tells delegates PEF stronger than ever By SHERRY HALBROOK In spite of the deep wounds suffered by New York and the nation on September 11, PEF members can be heartened by the knowledge that their union is stronger and better than ever, PEF President Roger Benson told delegates to the 23rd Annual PEF Convention assembled last month in Niagara Falls. “The state of our union today is more secure and stronger than it has been at any prior convention,” Benson said. “We have more members than last year, and more than at any time since 1995. We have more financial reserves and more political influence than we have ever had in our 23-year history. “But,” he cautioned, “that does not mean we are living in what former Gov. Hugh Carey called ‘the days of wine and roses.’” Benson cited the election of a president unfriendly to unions, massive federal tax cuts, and a sharply waning stock market as threats to PEF members. “Despite this gloom and doom, PEF has just completed a rather remarkable year,” Benson said. Among PEF’s achievements, he said, were its challenge to the state’s change in timekeeping practices, helping members laid-off because of a strike at Lockport hospital, achieving a change in federal tax laws that provides portability and other improvements for members investing in the state’s deferred- compensation program, and thwarting a state plan to impose fees at free employee-parking lots in Albany. In addition, he said, “We have begun a financial savings plan that will provide the union with enough cash reserves by 2003 for our PS&T contract negotiations.” And the union is fighting to protect state psychiatric centers and children’s mental-health services from closings and relocations. “While the struggle is not over, we can report with certainty,” he said, “these closures and consolidations will not happen this year. And, with elections next year, we have probably protected these fragile clients until at least 2003. Sending a new message “All of these successes help set the stage for future actions. Every time we stand up to management abuse, we send them a very clear and powerful message: ‘The days of roll over, PEF!’ are past!’” The delegates roared their approval of that message. Benson said, “If sacrifices must be made in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attack, we will not even consider them until there are guarantees that every manager and every elected official walks in those same shoes and walks down the same path with the workers.” And sacrifices will be asked, he said. “Gov. George Pataki has recently said he wants to get the fiscal problems resolved without raising taxes and by avoiding layoffs, but his no-layoffs pledge is conditional on sufficient federal funding support. “But I pledge to you, if one PEF member loses their job to involuntary layoff, this president takes full and complete responsibility for that failure. This pledge is not conditional. This pledge leaves no wiggle room.” Members key to success “If we do succeed, it’s because we know how to make things happen and, even more importantly, we know how to stop bad things from happening,” he added. “We changed the message on January 5, 2000 from the “State of the State” to the state of our contract. We have the power, and we choose to use it to chart our course for success.” The keys to that success, he said, are: • Staying mobilized; • Thinking outside the box of conventionality; • Fully engaging in political power; and • Ceasing to depend on the whims of management. PEF, he said, is breaking its dependence on joint contract funds to support union staff positions. And “we will no longer sit quietly on the sidelines while the state establishes an unacceptable contract pattern that locks our members into weak collective-bargaining agreements.” The union’s goals remain job security, stronger contracts, better pensions and enforcing the merit-and-fitness standards of civil service. “They are our goals because they are relevant, they unite us and they involve our members,” Benson said. “And they will remain our top priorities because on these principles there can be no compromise.” Achieving them demands great patience and stamina, as well as conviction, he said. Nothing the union does to achieve its goals is more important than fully mobilizing its members. “We need to understand,” he said, “that union membership can no longer be a spectator sport. Let us never forget that bad things happen when good people don’t get involved. And achieving our individual dreams is absolutely dependent on our ability to work together collectively.” The Communicator Home Page |
 Union will be ready for negotiations to begin in 2003 Hallum positioning PEF finances for contract battle By SHERRY HALBROOK Most people recognize how much easier it is to solve problems when you are financially prepared and that lesson applies equally to PEF, the union’s leaders told delegates to the 23rd Annual PEF Convention in October. “We have the ability to respond to the needs of our members, and the person who is responsible for that is our secretary-treasurer, Jane Hallum,” said PEF President Roger Benson. “Jane is a no-nonsense financial professional, who is watching the bottom line every day in every way,” Benson stated in introducing the secretary-treasurer, which he described as “probably the most difficult job in this union, because she has to tell people, ‘No.’” Hallum announced that in order to give the delegates more time to deal with resolutions, she would not waste time repeating the written report she had provided to them in their convention packets, but would focus on answering any questions. The underlying philosophy she has used in managing PEF’s finances, Hallum said, has been to realign the union’s income and expenditures to position PEF for the next round of PS&T contract talks slated to begin in January 2003. She predicted those talks will be difficult and that once again the union may need to rapidly mobilize its members to support its bargaining team and their positions. “The ability to communicate with our members, our leaders and our activists is paramount,” she said. “In our struggle, we must be able to reach 55,000 people with up-to-date, accurate information.” So, the union has been steadily improving its computer, internet and other communications resources at the Albany headquarters and field offices. “We are giving our old computers to PEF divisions. But, so far, only 45 divisions have asked for them,” she said. Another strategy, Hallum said, has been to reduce the union’s dependence on grants and joint-contract funds to support PEF staff positions so the state will not be able to use that dependence as leverage “to bend the leadership into compliance” with management goals. And, at the request of last year’s convention delegates, the union is building a special fund reserved strictly for contract negotiations and support. That fund should be sufficient to meet PEF’s needs when the time comes, she said. |
