SUPPORTING NURSES — Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno expresses his gratitude to nurses at their May rally in Albany. PEF President Roger Benson, Norma Amsterdam (SEIU) and Alan Lubin (NYSUT) also spoke at the event.
— Photo by Deborah A. Miles
Activists launch final push for state legislative priorities
By SHERRY HALBROOK
PEF’s political activists are working overtime these day to buttonhole their reps in the state Legislature before this year’s session ends in late June.
At the top of their wish lists are PEF’s Accountability bills. (See related
articles, pages 4-5.) And the nurses’ mandatory OT bill is also getting plenty of play. (See related article, page
3.) But there is more to PEF’s legislative agenda for state lawmakers than just these high-profile issues.
The union is also strongly supporting two bills that would require some state agencies to give employees and communities at least a year’s warning before attempting to close facilities.
State Sen. Joseph Robach sponsored both of these bills in the Senate. In the Assembly, Susan John sponsored the bill (A.1399/S.3183) constraining the state Office of Children and Families, and Assembly Member Peter Rivera introduced the bill (A.5485/S.3522) that applies to the state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.
Another bell-ringer for PEF is legislation to prohibit the state and other public employers in New York from reducing their share of contributions to their retired employees health insurance premiums, unless they reduce their contributions to premiums for their active employees by the same level.
Speaking of retirement, it seems never to be far from the minds of many PEF members who are eager to see further tier and pension reforms enacted before they leave state service.
Among the bills that PEF is supporting are these, which are intended to correct current pension tier inequities for members of the NYS and Local Employees Retirement System:
- A.7445/S.4514 — Sponsored by Assembly Member Jack McEneny and Sen. Robach, this legislation would grant additional service credit to members of Tiers 3 and 4 if they contributed 3 percent of their salaries to the system for more than 10 years;
- A.5807/S.3201 — Also sponsored by McEneny and Robach, this bill would allow members of Tiers 2, 3 and 4 to retire without penalty at age 55 or older if they have at least 25 years of service credit. It would also apply to members of some other public pension systems in the state; and
- A.6289/S.3550 — This legislation is sponsored by Robach and by Assembly Member Peter Abbate. It would allow Tier 1 members who were hired after April 1, 1972, and all Tier 2 members to include up to 30 days of vacation pay in the calculation of their final average salaries for purposes of determining their pension benefits.
The
Communicator June 2005
Inside This Issue
Features
Nurses'
Rally to end mandatory OT
Go Public:
- Building momentum every day
- Assemblyman leading the charge
- Senator pushes accountability bill
Departments
President's
Message
Legislative
Action
Member's Mailbag
Member Mobilization
Retirees In Action
PEF
Membership Benefits &Travel
Union Matters
Members unite to stop
DOL move
Union
tries to keep services afloat
Labor
honored at Somos El Futuro
Taking action to stop funding cuts
SBUH members flying air rescue
Extension for parole pistol permits
Elections held for E- Board
Other Links
Professional
Directory
Members'
Classified
Member
Communicator Feedback
Do You Prefer The
Online Edition?
How To
Advertise Here
The
Communicator Staff
Questions on
this site?
Email the Webmaster