5/01/2003

Negotiations begin for the Schools for the Deaf and Blind

PEF’s contract team and representatives from the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations (GOER) opened negotiations for the Schools for the Deaf and Blind contract addendum on Wednesday, April 30.

PEF leaders from both schools attended the meeting along with the contract team. (To view the PEF 2003 contract team, click on http://www.pef.org/pst2003/meet_the_team.htm).

Additional participants to the GOER team included the superintendents from both schools, as well as members of the State Education Department (SED) hierarchy.

A special contract addendum is required for PEF members who work for SED's Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, as these members are not covered by the state Attendance Rules or the Civil Service Law.

Negotiations continue next Wednesday, May 7. Issues to be covered are:

- A discussion on Career Mobility Offices.
- A presentation by PEF on the (unnecessary) costs to the taxpayers of the state's contracting out.
- The state’s response to PEF's contract proposals regarding institutional workers, particularly nurses.


Wage Patterns

SEIU News, April 30, 2003 reports that 28,000 NYC apartment workers settle their contact with wage gains in each year of the multi year agreement.

The contract was reached 70 minutes after the strike deadline following a marathon bargaining session. Under terms of the new three-year pact, union members will receive salary increases of about 2.8 percent per year above the cost of living as well as increased employer contributions to their health and pension funds. In the first year, residential building workers will see wage increases of $18 to $21 per week, depending on job classification.

The U.S. Labor Department reported Tuesday, April 29 that U.S. workers' wages and benefits rose by a surprising 1.3 percent in the first three months of 2003, the biggest increase in nearly 13 years.

The increase in the employment cost index for the January to March quarter was nearly twice as big as the 0.7 rise posted in the fourth quarter of 2002. The U.S. Department of Labor reported that wages and benefits in the first quarter were growing more quickly than the 0.8 percent advance that economists expected.

The 1.3 percent rise registered in the first quarter was the largest increase since the second quarter of 1990, when compensation went up by the same amount. The costs of benefits, such as health insurance and vacations, continued to outpace wage gains. Benefit costs rose by 2.2 percent in the first quarter of 2003, following a 1.3 percent advance in the prior quarter. The increase in benefit costs in the first quarter was the largest in 15 years.

Firefighters Reach Agreement: The Albany Times Union reports that City officials and Firefighters Association Leaders in the city of Cohoes reached a new contract which includes across the board raises as follows
- 3 percent, 2001
- 3 percent, 2002
- 4 percent, 2003
- 3 1/2 percent, 2004


"Principals get 8 percent hike, no givebacks,”
Chief Leader, April 11, 2003
The NYC Council of School Supervisors and Administrators reached a contract with the Bloomberg administration that hews to the city wage pattern. The contract runs from April 1, 2001 to June 30, 2003 and contains raises starting at 8 percent. For some, the ATB’s will reach 11 percent.


For a summary list of raises in other bargaining agreements and related information associated with wage patterns being established click here: http://www.pef.org/pst2003/updates/03212003.htm