Members responding as never before
Gov.'s zeros add up to big mobilizing in the Big Apple

MARCHING ONWARD - PEF Region 10 Coordinator Jennifer Faucher leads the way in the AFL-CIO NYC rally for Fairness for Working Families.

By KARA E. SMITH and SHERRY HALBROOK
New Yorkers like to do things in a big way. And nowhere is that more evident than in the member-mobilization efforts taking place in PEF Regions 10 and 11.

Region 10 Coordinator Jennifer Faucher and Region 11 Coordinator Pat Baker have been working overtime rallying members to speak out against Gov. George Pataki's four-year wage-freeze proposal.

Baker and Faucher have covered the New York City metropolitan area - holding division meetings, member-mobilization trainings and
scheduling rallies.

"I've actually had members calling me, saying, 'When's the next rally? I want to participate," said Baker. "They are disappointed if they can't be in a rally and they are getting into the spirit of letter writing and sending post cards to the governor and lawmakers."
In May, Regions 10 and 11 took part in three union rallies.

SHOWING SOLIDARITY - PEF Region 11 Coordinator Pat Baker along with dozens of other PEF members took part in the AFL-CIO NYC rally for Fairness for Working Families.- Photos by Bill Sachs

"We had members turn out for the May 12 AFL-CIO rally for Fairness for Working Families who had never participated before," Baker said. "I think it was a real eye-opener for them. It gave them a sense of what it means to be in a union. They saw people from all the unions in the city and they recognized that our contract struggle is not an isolated problem. Every working person has the same basic problem of trying to get a fair wage."

The New York City members are becoming skilled at gubernatorial "ambush," drop-of-the-hat picketing and marches - targeting the governor at every public event he attends on their turf, according to Faucher.
Often chanting, "We're mad as hell, and we're not going to take it anymore!" Region 10 and 11 members have protested outside nearly every Pataki event held in New York City.

"On May 27, dozens of PEF and Civil Service Employees Association members chanted, marched and picketed outside the Sheraton Hotel in Manhattan where Pataki was announcing his support for Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush," Faucher said. "Since Gov. Pataki refuses to bring a fair contract offer to us at the bargaining table, we decided to take our response to him.

"We gave out Pataki dollars and informational sheets, and CSEA handed out paper bags containing four peanuts to represent the governor's raise offer," Faucher said. "We made a lot of noise and really got our message across."
A second ambush demonstration later that week outside the Yale Club in Manhattan, got an even bigger response from the governor.

"He came over and talked to us while we picketed outside the event," Faucher said. "He told us New York State has the best work force in the country and that he will negotiate with us in good faith."
That may be so, but the coordinators vow that until an actual contract is ratified and signed, the New York City-area mobilization efforts won't stop.

"In a way, I think the governor did us a great favor with his four years of zeros, because he gave us something every single member in the state can mobilize around. It doesn't just affect part of us. It has the same meaning for all of us," Baker said. "Our increased productivity has earned the state its surplus and we deserve our share. We're only asking for 5 percent a year, not 38 percent or 68 percent like they got.

"We're going to change those four zeros," Baker added. "We are the union and changing things for the better are what unions are all about."

"We've only just begun to fight," Faucher said. "We've got one message for the governor: 'Show us the money!' "

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