Delegates told unity, activism vital to success

By SHERRY HALBROOK
“Moving forward together” was the theme of PEF’s 28th Annual Convention held October 15-18 in Lake Placid, and the broad meaning and importance of that theme was brought home again and again to the 804 delegates attending.

From the need to unify the PEF membership following the partisanship of PEF’s triennial elections earlier this year, to the call for solidarity and coalition-building with other unions, workers and community groups, delegates were urged to accept growth and change in PEF, lock arms and prepare to face the future together.

In his first State of the Union Address, PEF President Ken Brynien outlined “huge challenges” looming ahead, and stressed the need to meet them head-on, rather than wait until the union’s back is to the wall.

He cited widespread attacks on retirement security, Social Security, Medicare and public and private pension funds as a prime example of a threat that must be countered immediately.

“We need to fight it,” Brynien said. “We’re writing responses to op/eds and letters everywhere they appear in the country, because by the time it gets here no one will be left to fight for us.”

With the PS&T contract ending April 1 and bargaining to begin in just a few months, Brynien said it is crucial for PEF to be totally unified and mobilized both within its own ranks and with other state-employee unions and organizations who share common goals and concerns.

Voice of experience
Convention keynote speaker, Transportation Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 President Roger Toussaint laid open the grim realities of fighting for contract justice under the state Taylor Law.

Toussaint said Local 100 tried repeatedly to warn the Metropolitan Transit Authority the union would not tolerate efforts to cut pension benefits for future retirees, but the warnings went unheeded.

Local 100 went on strike December 20, 2005. After two days, the strike ended, and Local 100 accepted a 37-month contract on December 27.

“I think they will believe us the next time, and they will take other unions more seriously,” Toussaint said.

Local 100 was fined $2.5 million and Toussaint was jailed for two and a half days. Perhaps the severest blow was the loss of the automatic deduction of union dues from its members’ paychecks.

Toussaint said he was told the automatic dues deductions would be restored if the union “vows never to strike again — something no Local 100 president will ever do.”

“To win anything, labor must establish that we can inflict consequences on the other side,” Toussaint said. “And for public-sector unions, power means political power.”

Fight injustice
The delegates heard more advice about the need for mobilizing, organizing and personal action from guest speakers Anna Burger and Antonia Cortese of PEF’s two international affiliates — the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).

“Anna Burger is possibly the most influential woman in the U.S. labor movement,” said Brynien in his introduction of the SEIU secretary-treasurer and president of Change to Win — the national labor rival of the AFL-CIO that formed in 2005 to lead an organizing crusade to rebuild union membership and power throughout the country.

Burger spoke of how she has seen many of the hard-won gains of workers gradually destroyed in the past 35 years.

“Something is wrong in America,” she said. “All across this country we were united in believing in the American dream,” she said. “And we all knew what it meant.”

Now, she said, despite reports of economic growth for the past five years, surveys found more than 50 percent thought their kids would have a worse life than they have.

“They believe no matter how hard they work, they can never get ahead,” Burger said.

“The people who get the most, need it least,” Burger said. “All of us can do something about it. We need to create a new balance of power.

“‘Workers of the World, Unite!’ is no longer a slogan, it needs to be a way of life,” she said.

“This isn’t about doing good,” Burger said. “This is about fighting injustice. We cannot be polite and close our eyes to the injustice around us. Together, we can stop it. Together, we can reclaim our country.”

Take on greed
“The theme of the AFT convention this year was ‘Count me in!’” Cortese said, “and we can only be strong if every member is engaged.”

Cortese cited attacks on retirees’ pensions and benefits as horrible examples of callous greed at work.

“Everyone is looking at public pensions,” she said, “as a way to fund everything else. Somebody is going to create an atmosphere to allow them to take our pensions away.”

“This (Bush) administration is about less government, so government doesn’t have to take care of anyone,” Cortese said.