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Holding keys to a good contract
By KENNETH BRYNIEN
As most of you have heard, the Civil Service Employees Association has negotiated a tentative agreement with the state. As I write this, we appear to be in the final phase of bargaining for a PS&T contract, working to get every last cent we can for our members.

Like it, or not, pattern bargaining is a fact of life when negotiating with New York state, and the state will work to impose the parameters of its initial agreement on all of the unions with which it negotiates.

However, with each successive contract negotiation, we become better prepared to deal with and succeed in this environment.

The key is to try to shape the pattern before it is established. In preparation for the current negotiation, PEF has worked to build coalitions around our issues and convince other unions and their members of the importance of holding the line and remaining united in negotiation. We have worked to improve communications among the negotiating teams so we can all effectively bargain together.

Equally important is our ability to use these coalitions to put people in the streets to emphasize our issues, as well as fight against the imposition of bad patterns. All of these efforts have helped thwart major cost shifts for health benefits and forced the state to begin addressing cost-of-living issues in the costliest areas of the state. These are just a few of the issues on which we have focused and influenced the state’s bargaining pattern.

While no pattern or agreement is perfect, our efforts have shifted the positions of the state and other unions, enabling progress on our goals and issues; we still have much work to do.

Our job isn’t done yet. As I write this, PEF doesn’t have a tentative agreement and there are no guarantees in negotiations. The only guarantee I can give you is that PEF will work to get the best possible agreement that meets the needs of our members.