| State withdraws first-time fees Mobilized PEF members move parking-fee plan off Albany lots Months of vigorous member pressure paid off in late August when the state towed away its demand to negotiate parking fees for PEF-represented employees on the Harriman Office Campus and at other Albany locations where workers have been parking for free. Under a new agreement, PEF members who have been using state-employee parking facilities for free, can continue to do so. If the state relocates their agency or operation to a site where it charges employees for parking, they will have to pay the current rate for it. But the union has reined in the state’s ability to keep raising fees on those lots. Under the PS&T contract, the state Bureau of Parking Services could revise existing rates once a year within certain limits at lots it manages. Now, the bureau can only raise the fees on those lots on April 1, 2002 and that increase cannot exceed $2 for open lots, $4 for covered lots and $8 for reserved covered parking. Fees set at that time cannot be raised again before March 31, 2006. “While we did not get everything we wanted in these talks, we achieved our primary goal and certainly far more than we could have without the rapid and unified response of Region 8 members,” PEF President Roger Benson said. “This is another example of how much more effective PEF is in achieving its goals thanks to our member-mobilizing network.” “I want to recognize the team’s efforts and the leadership task force that planned and implemented our member mobilization on this issue,” added PEF Region 8 Coordinator Jeff Satz, who chairs the union’s Parking Committee. — Sherry Halbrook |