By SHERRY HALBROOK
Nearly 300 irate PEF members and their supporters rallied in front of a posh Albany country club in late June to tell Gov. George Pataki they would not give up more to get less than other state employees at the bargaining table.
That demonstration and earlier rallies in Albany and Buffalo helped move the negotiations forward and produce a tentative agreement. Pataki was at the club for an annual NYS Republican Party event.
Sounding shrill blasts of indignation on whistles and shouting their demand for “a contract now!” the demonstrators marched in front of the Wolfert’s Roost Country Club calling on Pataki to make his negotiators treat them fairly and professionally.
“PEF has been at the negotiating table for 18 months, and we are at a critical point in our negotiations,” PEF President Roger Benson told the Albany demonstrators. “But, instead of working
intensively with us to wrap this up and reach a tentative agreement, the state’s negotiators are stalling. They are offering us less money and demanding more concessions from PEF than the Civil Service Employees Association or United University Professions were required to make.”
The most onerous of these concessions is the state’s demand that PEF agree to weaken the contractual protections against time keeping for professional employees, such as doctors, lawyers, nurses, engineers and teachers — a demand the state’s chief negotiator called a “deal-breaker,” although the state produced no evidence to support the need for it.
“We are professionals and we do not punch time clocks!” Benson shouted to the governor. “And we will never punch time clocks!”
The angry demonstrators roared their agreement.
“This rally is sending a very strong and clear message to the state that we will not be bullied or intimidated,” said PEF Director of Labor Relations Roger Scales, the union’s chief negotiator. “That critical show of member support empowers us as we continue our negotiations.
“This is the point in negotiations where PEF members’ readiness to confront the governor and publicly demand a fair contract makes all the difference,” Scales said. “For myself and the other members of the PEF contract team, it’s like seeing the cavalry coming over the hill. It’s thrilling.”
State Assembly Members Pat Casale and Jack McEneny and state Sen. Neil Breslin turned out, as well as Albany County Legislator and former PEF President Howard A. Shafer, to show their support and march with PEF members.
Members from many area labor organizations, including the Teamsters, Communication Workers, Steelworkers, Bricklayers, Carpenters,
Painters, UUP and the CSEA also demonstrated their solidarity.
At the time of the rally, the state had settled contract talks with CSEA and UUP, but had not offered PEF the same deal. The four-year contracts with the other unions provide three yearly raises of 2.5 percent to 3 percent, with a bonus of $800 the first year of the contract, which is added to base pay on the last day of the contract.
“We are not asking for more than any other state workers’ union. We’re asking to be treated as fairly as the governor’s negotiators treated those unions,” Benson added. “We’re fighting for a fair contract. And we won’t settle until we get it.”
The
Communicator September 04
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