JUSTICE - PEF President Roger Benson calls for fair contract at rally.

Benson: unity key to success for PEF By ROGER E. BENSON Recently, I attended a PEF council meeting where someone asked about the value of mobilizing our membership to fight for a decent contract. The question was, why PEF couldn't just do what organizations such as the Business Council of New York State does: make political donations and then call legislators? Organizations such as the Business Council can influence legislation because of their members' ability to provide employment, to provide government with revenue, and to move their companies out of New York if they don't like the state's policies. Another major strength of those organizations is their members' ability to make sizable political contributions. As strong as we have tried to make PEF politically, we will never be able to match the financial resources of an organization such as the Business Council. The good news is that we don't need to. In the political arena, power is measured by how much you can help or hurt someone. And there are other forms of currency, besides money, that show strength. We are moving toward using political contributions to gain access to political leaders, but sometimes getting their attention requires the ability to make them look good or bad in the public's eyes. Even though organizations such as the Business Council and members they represent can throw sizable amounts of money around, they don't have the ability that PEF has to involve it's members in activities that can directly punish or reward elected leaders. Our strength lies in our ability to involve ourselves in political activities that can influence elections, legislative and budget battles, and that can influence public opinion and public policy. We helped in defeating a well-heeled candidate for the US Senate by getting directly involved in his opponent's political campaign. We were successful in changing policies regarding care for the state's developmentally disabled and mentally ill by having our members work publicly and protest deficiencies in the current delivery of services, bringing the problems to the attention of the public. We have been able to move the governor in contract negotiations through rallies and highly visible public events where we have confronted the governor and exposed the shameful hypocrisy of his 38 percent pay raise. These are things that money cannot buy. They come from the hard work and perseverance of our membership and a principled fight on issues. As I said at the PEF convention in October, our future lies in our ability to involve and mobilize our membership around our issues. We've only tapped a small portion of our potential. When we can involve all our members in activities surrounding our issues, political leaders will not be able to ignore our issues. The Business Council knows this, and that is why their web site carries the following statement: "... the larger and more powerful we are, the more people will listen - and respond...." The strategy to gain political influence is just that simple.

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