No soft start in March for E Board newbies


By SHERRY HALBROOK and KIM PARTRIDGE Financial issues, both


PEF’s and the state’s were among the dominant issues


at the March meeting of the union’s Executive Board in Albany. Fourteen new board members and two


new regional coordinators, who took the oath of office and were seated at the meeting, had to hit the ground running.


Money matters The board adopted the 2011-12 PEF


budget as presented by Secretary- Treasurer Arlea Igoe. She urged board members to carefully consider how dues are spent at the local division level, and in the PEF regions. Igoe said PEF had applied for a $1


million grant from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), one of PEF’s two international affiliates. If approved, the grant would help fund PEF’s efforts to defend state jobs and services from proposed cuts. Igoe said dues increases had been


approved last year at conventions of both AFT and PEF’s other international affiliate, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). PEF, she said, was balking at paying additional levies imposed by SEIU for its 2010 and 2011 American Dream programs. PEF President Ken Brynien announced


PEF’s decades-old debt to AFT, resulting from litigation over a dues dispute, had finally been eliminated. AFT forgave some of the debt each year until it was completely erased.


We are one Brynien reported on nationwide attacks


on public employees, their jobs, pay, benefits, pensions and rights to collectively bargain. The most notable of these attacks were


in Wisconsin, and board members personally contributed $1,951 at the meeting to support the embattled public employees in that state. Brynien said AFT, the National


Education Association and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees have formed a coalition to educate the public about the good things public employees do. SEIU, Brynien said, is focusing on


creating a good jobs effort. All four international unions are


working together on a “Retirement Security for All” program, to shift public emphasis from taking retirement security away from


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workers who have it, to promoting it for workers who don’t.


All guns blazing Brynien outlined the many steps PEF


was taking to protect its members and their services from such attacks in New York, which were primarily coming in the form of proposed budget cuts and layoff threats as the union opened its contract negotiations with the state. The president said PEF’s efforts


included: • Working with New Yorkers for Fiscal


Fairness and a coalition of community groups to promote extending the state income-tax surcharge on millionaires to help forestall state budget losses; • Developing a statewide PEF image-ad


campaign featuring members; • Working with the NYS United Teachers


to coordinate public relations efforts to boost public opinion of government employees; • Participating in We Are One rallies of


solidarity and budgetary rallies; • Testifying at budget hearings; and • Meeting personally with the governor


and his top staff, as well as state legislative leaders to emphasize PEF’s desire to work with them in resolving the state’s problems.


Keep talking Brynien said PEF had begun using new


Four Exec Board vacancies filled


Four mid-term vacancies on the PEF Executive Board were filled in August following the filing of nominating petitions when just one candidate for each seat was certified by the PEF Special Elections Committee.


The board seats automatically filled by sole


nominees were: • Seat 10 was filled by Sheik N. Nabijohn. He now represents all members at the state Banking


Department; • Seat 172 was filled by Beverly Jones-Yahia. She now represents certain members


at the state Office of Technical Administration, the Statewide Wireless Network and the state Foundation for Science and Technology; • Seat 235 was filled by Penny Howansky. She now represents all PEF Region 8


members at the state Labor Department, except those working in Unemployment Insurance, the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, Unemployment Insurance Modernization and Special Investigations; and • Seat 240 was filled by Seth Hohenstein. This seat represents all members at the


state Labor Department working in Unemployment Insurance, the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, Unemployment Insurance Modernization and Special Investigations, and those working in PEF Region 9. No candidate was certified to fill a fifth board vacancy in Seat 155 which represents


PEF members at the state Adirondack Park Agency. Nominees for that seat will be sought in the fourth quarter special elections beginning in October. —Sherry Halbrook


PEF Information Line: 1-800-553-2445


technology and social networks to maximize the amount and timeliness of its communications with members during this critical period. These efforts include: • Holding “tele-town-hall meetings”


with thousands of members at the same time by phone; • Communicating via Facebook and


Twitter; and • Redesigning the PEF website to help


members find the news and information they need faster. Brynien urged the board to help keep


members informed and to share non- confidential news with them.


2011, ’15 PEF Conventions The board discussed and adopted the


agenda for the 2011 PEF Convention to be held in September in Niagara Falls. The usual Sunday night desert and awards reception will not be held this year and the time will be used, instead, for meetings of the resolutions committees. After a discussion of possible sites for


the 2015 convention, Vice President Joe Fox, who chairs the conventions, said he would invite bids from Albany, Buffalo, Lake Placid, Niagara Falls, Saratoga Springs and Syracuse and would even consider smaller communities in the state if possible.


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