DOT centers pose relocation threat
PEF engineers unite to work for common goals
By DEBORAH A. MILES
To strengthen job protection at the state Department of Transportation (DOT) during the “transformation” process, PEF leaders are working to boost their communication network to a statewide level.
“We are recruiting members for an engineers’ committee,” said William Holthausen, a PEF Executive Board representative from DOT. “This multi-agency committee will deal with working conditions of PEF engineering professionals, and will include technicians and other titles that work with engineers.
“Hostile managers, an indifferent Legislature, privatization and agency consolidations are a real threat to DOT jobs. Action needs to be taken now to preserve and improve the quality and security of our work life,” Holthausen said.
Strength in numbers
The state employs nearly 6,000 engineers and technicians who work in 18 agencies. “Though our numbers are large, our voice is muted because we are so widely scattered,” he said.
To get the committee up and running, Holthausen said members at local worksites must organize and decide on workplace needs and goals, contact PEF leaders and stewards at other agencies in their areas, and then expand the network to a statewide level. He said participation is the key to success.
Get involved
Lou Ferrone, Jr., statewide L-M chair at DOT echoes that battle cry.
“If members want to keep working in their own regions, they need to stop working out-of-title,” Ferrone said.
He explained DOT wants to establish Program Support Centers (PSCs) as part of its transformation project. The centers are targeted for Rochester, Syracuse, Poughkeepsie, a satellite in Long Island and possibly another in an unannounced location.
“Our labor-management team continues to assess the effect of these centers,” he said.
It would take between 2,000 and 2,500 employees to staff all the centers, and DOT may accomplish this by transferring vacant titles to other locations.
“The full staffing of the centers will happen by moving vacant titles to those locations,” Ferrone said. “If you want a promotion, you will have to take the promotion in a PSC. This could be a good thing if you live in an area where a PSC is located. If you don’t, you’ll have to uproot your family.”
Keep titles occupied
One way to stop DOT from moving positions to PSCs and keeping them in the same region is to keep them filled.
“We want the titles filled with the rightful members,” Ferrone said. “The L-M team continues to file out-of-title grievances, but the state continues to work members out-of-title. PEF is requesting the state enforce the cease-and-desist portion of the sustained grievances.”
Ferrone and Holthausen stressed the importance of DOT members being active and communicating.
“We believe the real mission of the transformation project is to privatize jobs,” Ferrone said. “That’s why we are taking an aggressive approach and putting our issues in the spotlight to make members aware.”
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