6/12/2003

The State and PEF negotiators met on June 11. Part of the session was devoted to a discussion between experts from the NYS Division of Budget (DOB) and PEF regarding the current and future economic climate.

DOB is making the rounds to tell the Unions what they have already told the press: there is no money in the budget for employee raises. PEF has already responded directly to that charge (see letter from President Benson to the TU), and we used the DOB presentation as an opportunity to further expose the weakness of the DOB position.

Despite painting a bleak picture of the state's fiscal situation for this year and next, DOB experts believe in both a continuing recovery in the State’s economy and that average wage growth for all employees in New York would be about 2% or 3% annually in 2003 and 2004. The Union experts assert that the State is funding raises for county, city, school district and town employees as well as contractors and that PEF members need be treated in a fair manner. The Union has proposed the State reduce its dependence on contractors who have been proven to be more expensive than state employees as a means of funding a just contract for its members.

DOB did not challenge the Union’s budget experts who pointed out that through policy decisions, the State has increased funding for Local Assistance programs by over $30 billion over the last nine years which have and continue to be used to fuel wage increases for non - state governmental employees. (See a compilation of contract settlements by clicking here http://www.pef.org/pst2003/wage_settlements.htm)

The Union charged that the State is providing contractors with guaranteed raises for 2003 (e.g. the OGS “backdrop” contract) and that they have done nothing to stem the flow of work from State workers to the more expensive contract workforce. The union asserts that by instituting a hiring freeze and restricting agencies' ability to backfill vacated positions and not instituting a hiring freeze of contractors DOB is complicit in engineering the transfer of work to this more expensive shadow workforce.

DOB experts feigned lack of knowledge of 2 NYS Comptrollers (one Republican, one Democrat) exhaustive studies which were confirmed by an Executive Branch funded study (DOT and KPMG*) all of which prove that DOT’s use of consultant contractors costs the State taxpayer significantly more than if governmental engineers were used. DOT spends approximately $300 million a year on these consultants.

Those of you who regularly read this website will recall that PEF previously presented information to the State negotiators that shows that upwards of a quarter of a billion dollars could be saved if contractors were replaced by more cost efficient State workforce.

The bottom line - the State is funding raises for the contractors as well as school district, town, city and county employees in 2003. The MTA, whose Board of Directors are all Governor appointees, approved a significant economic package for their 34,000 Transit Workers covering 2003 - 2005. DOB itself predicts all other workers in NYS will receive average wage increases of between 2% and 3 % in 2003 and 2004. Justice requires that the NYS workforce be treated in the same manner as these other workers.

*PEF successfully sued the State under the Freedom of Information Laws to get a copy of this KPMG study after DOT refused to provide it despite the fact it was paid for with public money.

- Following the budget discussion GOER and PEF signed off on 20 contract articles where the parties have mutually agreed to no changes. This is the first sign off agreed to by the employer since ground rules in early February.

The employer then asked more questions of the union regarding the union’s demands in Article 18 (Health and Safety). Participating in this portion of the agenda was PEF’s Director of Health and Safety, Jon Rosen.

The employer had no counter proposals or other comments on the full language contract proposals (in excess of 15 contract articles) the Union has provided them to date.

“Winning raises from the state is never easy, especially from an employer who has chosen to provide raises to thousands of people except State employees. It is not the first uphill battle we have faced. We remain committed to making sure that our members receive the same kinds of raises others have already been given and our members deserve.” Roger E. Benson, PEF President

The parties will next meet on June 18. The agenda includes a discussion of the Union’s and the State’s demands in Articles 20 and 33, the union’s demands in 34, 35 and Employee Privacy and the State’s demands in Article 30 and 41.

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