NEGOTIATIONS 2003 TALKING POINTS

DECEMBER 18, 2002

BACKGROUND

·        The NYS/PEF Contract Expires on April 2, 2003

·        The New York State economy is in its worst condition since the depression (i.e., $8 – $10 billion deficit likely in 2003-2004).

·        Bargaining between NYS and PEF for a successor contract will likely begin in late January, 2003.

·        Regular updates on the bargaining process will be posted on the PEF website (www.PEF.org), e-mailed to those on the PEFOnline@pef.org distribution list and posted in the monthly Communicator.

·       The Contract Team has completed over 50 membership meetings in its effort to arrive at contract demands. The Team will be back in the Regions when the status of bargaining dictates (i.e., with a settlement, to discuss impasse, to lead a fight, to inform of progress, etc). 

WE ARE PREPARED FOR NEGOTIATIONS 2003

PEF is the best prepared it has ever been for bargaining. We have been busy since the last contract settled. Specific actions PEF has taken that will improve our position in bargaining include:

• President Roger Benson appointed a contract team that represents broad geographic, professional, cultural and other interests many months earlier than traditionally done so that the team would be fully prepared. 

• PEF has surveyed its members via e-mail and The Communicator, and the Contract Team has met with the membership to get their input first hand at over 50 contract meetings across the State.

• PEF’s political action program is at its strongest point in our history. For the first time in 12 years, PEF has endorsed the Governor who will be negotiating with us.  In addition, PEF successfully endorsed the victors in all three Statewide races and in over 95% of the legislative contests. The Legislative Department’s budget has been doubled, and we have seen more PEF sponsored bills become law in the last five years than in the entire 20 years before, including the most significant pension improvements in history. 

• Since the last contract negotiations, PEF has created a multi-million dollar contract war chest to be used exclusively to improve our chances of obtaining a just contract.

• In the last 18 months, over half of PEF’s 227 Divisions have become fully mobilized and are now ready to more effectively assist in a contract fight. 

• Over the last two years, PEF has built its capacity to communicate with the touch of a button via e-mail and now has over 9000 home e-mail addresses in its PEFOnline database.

• As a result of PEF’s leading the fight in the last contract round, PEF earned a deserved reputation of being a formidable opponent and/or friend. This will serve us well in the upcoming bargaining.

• In a significant change in philosophy, PEF will formally fight the establishment of a bad pattern. We will do this by using our resources to educate the members of the union that is attempting to create a bad pattern and encourage them to vote the bad deal down.

WE RECOGNIZE THE OVERARCHING PRINCIPLE THAT ACTIONS AWAY FROM THE TABLE INFLUENCE THE OUTCOME MOST

• Negotiations success (i.e., a fair and just settlement) is the result of a partnership between the negotiators and the membership recognizing the basic principle that success at the bargaining table results from actions away from the table.

• Competently arguing proposals, keeping the membership informed, leading the fight where necessary and responding to “calls to action” issued by the PEF leadership are significant components of this partnership.

OUR FIRST CHALLENGE IS CLEAR – INCREASE STATE REVENUES OR THE BEST CONTRACT IS USELESS IF YOU DON’T HAVE A JOB!

• The success of our negotiations and the maintenance of our members’ job security are directly related to our getting more money into the state coffers.

• The New York State economy is in its worst condition since the depression (i.e., $8-$10 billion deficit likely in 2003-2004). All members and leaders need to understand the PEF platform on raising revenues and with this information convince their respective New York State legislators to implement the needed two-year .007% tax surcharge on adjusted gross income over $100,000 legislation. 

THE PATTERN IS POTENT

• PEF is one of more than a half dozen unions negotiating with the State of New York for employees of the State. The largest union negotiating with the State is CSEA representing 77,000 employees. A wage pattern set by CSEA, if ratified by their membership, will result in the pattern being set and “applied” to PEF represented employees. The reason is simple. A wage pattern accepted by a large number of employees is used as the foundation by the State before the public, and ultimately the legislature, to paint as “unreasonable” the demands of other State employees for a greater across the board raise.    

WE WILL NOT ACCEPT A POOR DEAL

• PEF will fight for the best deal even if that means fighting to get a pattern established by an arbitrator.

• NYSCOPBA represents about 25,000 NYS employees. Since the last round of negotiations, they have been provided the right to go to binding arbitration. If PEF believes that the arbitrator for NYSCOPBA would set a better pattern than the State is offering to PEF in negotiations, we will wait for the NYSCOPBA/NYS arbitration result. This wait may require extreme patience and we must all be ready to do what it takes to achieve a just contract. 

WE WILL NOT ACCEPT ZEROS IN ANY YEAR OF A NEGOTIATED AGREEMENT

• We will not accept zeros. Since 9/11/01, significant raises have been negotiated for most employees in the New York State public sector including firefighters, teachers, health care workers, police, college professors, school district employees, county and city employees, etc. Most recently, the Federal government announced a 3.1% raise for its employees in 2003.  We reject the $1,000 first year bonus recently accepted by the New York City Transit Workers Union as a zero and will negotiate more patiently to achieve no zeros.

ALL PEF MEMBERS WILL ACCRUE SICK LEAVE AT THE RATE OF 13 DAYS PER YEAR

• We will correct the disparity between members in PEF getting ten days of sick leave while others in both PEF and other unions get 13 day per year.

OUR PATIENCE COUPLED WITH A WILLINGNESS TO FIGHT WILL RESULT IN A FAIR AND JUST NEGOTIATIONS RESULT

PEF looks to the New York City teachers’ (UFT) contract struggle as a model. The teachers’ contract fight lasted more than two years after the contract expired. Their patience and persistence resulted in a fair and just contract.