PEF hones 2007 legislative priorities
By SHERRY HALBROOK
STATE:
Every year, PEF reviews and adjusts its agendas of broad state and federal
legislative positions and goals before distributing them to lawmakers in Albany
and Washington.
This process begins as soon as the state legislative session ends with the
union’s legislative department and the PEF Political Action Committee (PAC)
preparing recommendations for changes, which undergo further review by the
Executive Board in August. T\hey are handed over to PEF’s convention delegates
for final action in the fall.
The PEF state agenda is organized into six areas of concern:
1. Ensuring Quality Services;
2. Protecting Employee Rights;
3. Maintaining a Stable Public Work Force;
4. Reforming NYS and Federal Labor Law;
5. Improving Working Conditions and Benefits; and
6. Providing for a Well-Deserved Retirement.
At the 2006 PEF convention in October, PEF Vice President and PAC Chair Joe Fox
presented six proposed additions to the State Legislative Agenda.
Following much discussion and a few minor changes in language, all of the
proposed additions passed and the agenda was adopted.
The first addition was to Section 1 and calls for legislation that would require
the state to continuously update and improve the skills and knowledge of
employees through well-thought-out work force planning and professional
development programs.
Section 2 was not altered.
A sentence was added to Section 3 calling for state legislation requiring
adjustments to the pay of state employees in areas of the state with very high
costs-of-living to better compensate them for their higher expenses.
No changes were made to Section 4.
Section 5 was amended to include a call for legislation to require the state to
pay its employees fair salaries that “at least equal” the average regionally
prevailing wage for their professions.
Three additions were made to Section 6.
The first of these calls for legislation allowing members of all the state
pension tiers to include 30 days of vacation pay in their final average salary
used to calculate their pensions.
The second addition calls for legislation to allow state employees who are
vested in the pension system, but leave before retirement, to defer until they
retire both their eligibility for retiree health insurance coverage and their
sick-leave credit to offset those premiums.
The final change expresses PEF’s strong opposition “to any plan to create a new
Tier 5, or the creation of any more inequities in the pension system.”
PEF will post the 2007 state and federal legislative agendas on its Web site at
www.pef.org under Political Action.
By SHERRY HALBROOK
FEDERAL:
Trying to position yourself today on tomorrow’s federal legislative and budget
issues is a bit like trying to catch a greased pig at the county fair.
Undaunted, delegates to the 2006 PEF convention waded into the fray and approved
a dozen updates to the union’s 2006 Federal Legislative Agenda to get it into
fighting shape for 2007.
The changes, which originally were proposed by the PEF Political Action
Committee and the Legislative Department and reviewed by the Executive Board,
were presented to the delegates by PEF Vice President and PAC Chair Joe Fox.
The approved alterations to the federal agenda include:
• Opposing federal funding for academic and research foundations to provide
services currently or previously provided by public employees;
• Supporting federally mandating cost-benefit analysis before public jobs and
services are given to contractors;
• Supporting legislation guaranteeing the right of state employees to sue in
federal court if they are denied the rights and benefits provided under the Fair
Labor Standards Act;
• Supporting Hatch Act reform to allow state employees unfettered participation
in political activities;
• Opposing a requirement for medical consultants to obtain Supplemental Security
Income certification;
• Opposing consolidation of federal funding into block grants for government
programs when it would affect New York state employees and the services they
provide;
• Supporting an increase in the federal minimum wage;
• Opposing the reclassification by the National Labor Relations Board of
(private-sector) charge nurses as “supervisors” and, therefore, ineligible for
union representation;
• Supporting increased federal Veterans’ Administration funding for military
hospitals and housing;
• Supporting increased disability and death benefits for veterans of the
military, state and national guards and reserves and for increased death
benefits for dependents of active-duty military personnel;
• Supporting prevailing-wage minimum pay and per-diem rates for state and
local-government employees; and
• Supporting full federal funding of environmental programs in New York state,
and opposing the weakening of environmental laws and regulations.
Fox thanked the delegates for their efforts in amending the agenda, but reminded
them, “We must elect people (to federal offices) who support this agenda, or it
won’t happen.”
Find PEF’s entire 2007 Federal Legislative Agenda online at
www.pef.org under Political Action.
The Communicator Dec.06/Jan.07
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Clarification: A photo caption in the November issue of The Communicator should
have said PEF Vice President Pat Baker and Regional Coordinators Dee Dodson,
Vernetta Chesimard and Jemma Marie-Hanson coordinated the PEF Sept. 11 memorial
service in New York City.