BUDGET TALK — PEF President Roger Benson and Division 236 Leader Willis Toms talk with Assembly Member Jim Tedisco in February about the need to fund and hire more state parole officers. — Photo by Fred Moody
Taking on the challenges as they come
Continue mobilizing to build PEF power
By ROGER E. BENSON
Many of the articles in this month's issue of The Communicator highlight our struggles to improve working conditions, protect jobs, and ensure the rights of our members.
We are fighting to protect our members’ jobs in agencies such as the state Office of Mental Health.
We are lobbying our lawmakers and mobilizing against short staffing in virtually every agency across the state.
And we are battling contract issues such as illegal time keeping, and payment for standby and on-call pay.
It’s not surprising that our struggles continue. From the proposal to close Hutchings and Middletown Psychiatric Centers, to consolidate children’s psychiatric centers, to phase out shared staff, to the oppressive caseloads of our parole officers and mandatory overtime for our nurses, we fight on.
A common thread through all of our challenges has been your willingness to join in the struggles; to participate in activities that defend our jobs, improve our working conditions and enforce our contract.
Building a mobilizing network that allows us to quickly respond to threats and challenges to our membership continues to be a priority of this administration.
Ultimately, our ability to mobilize thousands of PEF members may give management the incentive to work with us to resolve issues quickly — not necessarily because it wants to, but because of the consequences if it refuses.
The struggles and challenges we face will continue, but as they do, we will continue to build our ability to mobilize and build our influence. Through mobilizing we can level the playing field and better position ourselves to meet and succeed against the challenges placed before us.