The Communicator Letters policy We welcome letters to the editor about union issues and events relevant to PEF's diverse membership. All letters are subject to editing for space, fairness and good taste. Please keep them brief (up to one page, double-spaced or a maximum of 250 words), and please include your name and phone number for verification. Send letters to: The Communicator Public Employees Federation P.O. Box 12414 Albany, N.Y. 12212-2414 email Denyce Duncan Lacy, Executive Editor The Communicator - Director of Public Relations dduncanlacy@pef.org Sherry Halbrook, Editor of The Communicator- shalbrook@pef.org Family thanks PEF for help To the Editor: I want to thank the PEF membership for the caring and generosity to my family and other PEF families affected by the tragic events of September 11, 2001. As PEF President Roger Benson put it in his letter, “It clearly expresses the solidarity of the union brothers and sisters, which is much more than financial assistance.” Words cannot express our gratitude to all of you. September 11, 2001 showed us the faces of evil, but it also brought out the best of the human spirit demonstrated in so many ways. I believe that God, who is the giver of good things, will bless you all. Thanks once again, for your continued support. AFFIONG ADANGA Bronx Unfair to make workers pay To the Editor: To date, the worst event to have been witnessed in my life, was September 11, 2001. Before that, the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Now, as a state employee for New York, I fear for my future because of September 11th. Gov. George Pataki wants to use us as a way to make up for lost revenues. Why should I, or any other state worker, be made to feel this way? I’m not the cause of this problem and never will be. But now the governor wants to take 5,000 positions away, and increase our workload at an already understaffed agency. I damned the terrorists for what they did to us, Americans. Must I damn the governor for what he wants to do to us, New Yorkers — who are not terrorists, but loyal state employees? JAMES B. CALFA Mastic Beach Out-of-title destroying PEF To the Editor: Out-of-title work is more dangerous to the union than contracting out. You are lower than a scab if you do it, because you eliminate the need for another unit member. All state PS&T employees are protected from out-of-title work by contract Article 17 and state Civil Service Law Section 61.2. If PEF and its members turn their heads and allow out-of-title work at the expense of another PEF member, they undermine what a union represents. Examples of PEF members doing out-of-title work at the state Department of Correctional Services include: elimination of temporary release interviewer/supervisor positions with that work being done by corrections counselors; recreation therapists replaced by clinical staff; general-population senior correction counselors supervising CASATs, acting as tier 3 hearing officers and supervising correspondence; and teachers, corrections counselors, senior corrections counselors and recreation leaders performing tier assistance. That is just the tip of the iceberg. At least a non-union scab fills a job and doesn’t eliminate it. This is a closed shop. If you don’t like unions, find another job. Stand up and fight! Or be ready to lose more PEF-represented jobs, so appointees and managers with big salaries can keep growing at our expense! LARRY WOODWARD Elmira