Numbers talk

"The political establishment only responds to numbers," Miller said. "The number of voices it hears. The number of bodies it sees. The number of times it sees them. The number of dollars it gets. The number of dollars it will lose. The number of votes it will get. The number of votes it will lose. The number of days that pressure is sustained."

The state stalled for 90 days before making a compensation offer to PEF, he said, and then, on April 22, it offered the union a four-year pay freeze - an offer so shabby even the governor became too embarrassed to own up to it.

"But after our protest rallies in Detroit and in Cooperstown; after our radio, television, and newspaper media campaign; after our dramatic impact at the State Fair; and with the rallies in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and New York City scheduled for October 4 and 5, they finally put four years of 3 percent raises on the table on October 1, to take the issue of the zeros away," Miller said.

PEF needs more recruits

Miller cited three main obstacles PEF must overcome to get a fair contract:
· the lack of strike and binding arbitration as legal options;
· the lack of unity among the state-employee unions; and
· the lack of involvement by many PEF members in demanding a fair contract.
"But even if we had the right to strike, binding arbitration and coalition bargaining, the strongest weapon we would have in our arsenal would still be you," Miller told the members.
"It would be your voice and visibility directed at the politicians who determine the terms and conditions of our employment," Miller added.

Leaders, staff can't do it alone

PEF Chief PS&T Negotiator Joe Buckley was equally strong in urging member involvement.

Buckley, who is on loan to PEF from the Service Employees International Union, said he has been very impressed with the competence and dedication of PEF leaders and staff compared to the many others he has seen and worked with in his 30-year career in the union movement.

"Your leadership always tries to do the right things for the right reasons," Buckley said, "and, believe me, I've been in plenty of meetings in other unions where the leaders were trying as hard as they could to skirt doing the right thing. And PEF has a very valuable resource in its professional staff.

"You have a great bargaining committee here," Buckley continued. "These people are incredibly faithful to the task you sent them to accomplish.

"But nothing any of these people do is of any value unless you're out there rallying and fighting for a fair contract," he said. "The state wants you paralyzed. PEF wants you mobilized. We need you to keep getting up and going to those demonstrations."

Force state to ante up

Miller noted that the state's offer is not the contract PEF members want, but PEF negotiators will never be able "to pull that rabbit out of the hat," he said, until the union's members help put the rabbit in the hat.

"The in-your-face, hard, cold, tough-to-swallow reality is that not enough of our members are chasing the rabbit, no less grabbing it and putting it in the hat. Although more members are doing more than ever before, not enough members are doing enough. Our rallies in Detroit, Cooperstown, and at the State Fair certainly opened eyes. But we have to keep the pressure on to keep those eyes open," Miller told the delegates.

"We need 4,000 more member mobilizers - not just for this contract campaign, but for other campaigns," he said. "But right now, we need to focus everything and everyone on this 9-month-old contract campaign."

By SHERRY HALBROOK

Although "zeros" are finally off the PS&T bargaining table, the raise offer that replaced them is strictly "take it or leave it," PEF's negotiators told the union's convention delegates.

The state, they said, insists that its offer of four years of 3 percent raises, which would be delayed to take effect on Oct. 1 of each year, is available only if PEF accepts "the entire package in which they are wrapped."

That total package, said Contract Team Chairman Eric Miller, adds up to "less than the one offered to and ratified by United University Professions and less than the one previously offered to and rejected by the Civil Service Employees Association." And, he said it calls on PEF to make more concessions than were asked of the other unions.

For example, the state's offer to PEF, he said, provides no equivalent value to the uninterrupted health insurance provided to part-time UUP instructors, to the UUP increases in stand-by/recall pay, or to a CSEA prescription-drug-fund bailout.

What the offer does call for, Miller said, is the six-month lag in paying raises, across-the-board increases in health-care co-payments including an 87.5 percent raise in co-payments for brand-name prescription drugs, the equivalent of punching a time clock and crippling demands for expanded payments from PEF to cover the work time its local leaders devote to union business.

When one delegate commented that "the time-clock issue is really repugnant to my members" and asked how important resisting the demand will be to PEF, he got a swift answer.

"I can't say it too emphatically," replied PEF President Roger Benson. "We will not have a contract with a provision for using time clocks.
"I will never allow this PEF administration to be the one that gave that away. And there's not a snowball's chance in hell that our Executive Board would ever vote for that," Benson added.

Staying focused on priorities

While PEF brought 80 proposals covering 130 specific issues and 31 of the 49 contract articles to the bargaining table, the union is focused on "the three biggest contract priorities that virtually every member has identified to us:"
· a fair base-wage increase every year;
· with April 1st starting dates for raises; while
· maintaining the quality and value of our health benefits.

Miller urged members to do everything they can to help the union build political clout.
But delegate Wayne Bayer wondered how valuable the union's political action has been in winning a fair contract.

"What are state legislative leaders doing to help us?" Bayer asked Benson.
"I know they've been assisting us, because I've had calls from (state Director of Employee Relations) Linda Angello who was frosted when Republican lawmakers called the governor about the zeros," Benson replied.

Blunt battle cry says it all

"Forget about the laws of collective bargaining," PEF Chief Negotiator Joe Buckley told the delegates. "And think about the laws of the jungle. That's what it's about."

Buckley recalled the first contract he negotiated and the advice he got from a veteran negotiator. The secret to success is simple, even crude, he was told: "Bite 'em in the ass, and don't let go!"

"We need you to get out there and start biting," Buckley said.
The blunt battle cry was heard over and over again the following day when nearly 900 delegates marched through the streets of Rochester to rally and demand contract justice.