TAX THE MILLIONAIRES — PEF President Ken Brynien addresses hundreds of protesters at Occupy Albany November 17. — Photo by Deborah A. Miles
PEF ready to take on challenges of 2012
By KENNETH BRYNIEN
The past year was filled with many challenges, not just for PEF but for public employees in general.
We have seen attacks on collective bargaining in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. We have seen public sentiment grow against public employees and their wages and benefits. Most of this anger was stoked by the public’s perception that we have not shared in the pain and sacrifice associated with the economic downturn.
These are the same emotions which created the “Occupy Wall Street” movement which seeks equity in sharing the burden of the economic downturn between the nation’s wealthiest 1 percent and the remaining 99 percent of us.
Our task, and one purpose for our participation in the Occupy efforts and similar events, is to help the public understand we are not members of the privileged 1 percent that caused our economic strife.
Public employees are part of the 99 percent who are struggling to overcome it.
Our contract was a difficult one for our members and leaders of PEF to accept; it offered no good choices, but our members overwhelmingly chose limited sacrifice to save the jobs of their co-workers.
Much as the first, failed ratification helped us as a union to negotiate an improved contract, the success of the second ratification has put us in a better position. It will strengthen our credibility as we fight to protect our jobs and benefits and demand our state leaders require shared sacrifice from that 1 percent.
Our primary fight over the next year will be to ensure the wealthiest New Yorkers, who benefited the most from bailouts and tax cuts, do their part. That’s the only way to ensure the remaining 99 percent of us – who provide and rely on public services – do not continue to be sacrificed for the 1 percent. We must insist the state’s tax policies and structure are equitable and require those who benefited the most from the state’s economic growth reinvest in the state and its services by paying their fair share of taxes.
Fighting for equitable treatment by the governor won’t be the only challenge we will face in 2012. We must fight to stop him from dismantling the pension system, from allowing state staffing levels to drop so low it leads to more costly contracting out and privatization of our jobs, and increasingly dangerous conditions for us and the public we serve.
These are just a few of the tough issues we face in the new year, and our new contract will help us take them on and prevail. It shows others we are willing to do our fair share to address the state's fiscal crisis and it helps deflate those who try to blame public employees for the state’s and nation’s economic ills.
As we enter the new year, let’s work together to make sure the decision-makers of this state hear our collective voice as we demand they maintain the vital services we provide.
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