Convention speakers urge unity, focus on protecting jobs, middle class


By SHERRY HALBROOK Delegates to PEF’s October convention in Syracuse received many messages of support and encouragement during that three- day annual event.


Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney, invited as a friend to labor, welcomed the delegates to Syracuse.


“We are so happy you are here,” Mahoney told the delegates. “We can’t do without your service. We have seen the way you have handled attacks on public employees. We


have heard you and we want you to know, we are all in this together.”


Lawrence thanked the delegates and


PEF officers for helping to “build a stronger labor movement.” The AFT executive VP said she has seen AFT change from just representing teachers to a broadly based organization representing five different kinds of employees, including state and other public employees, such as those in PEF. In fact, she said, PEF was AFT’s first effort to organize state employees. “Now, AFT represents more than 4,000 job titles,” Lawrence added. She advised PEF members to recognize their common interests and bonds with all kinds of employees and union members. “It’s not hard to see, if there are no


more private-sector unions, there will soon be no more public-sector unions,” Lawrence warned. Besides building strong alliances with other unions, she told the delegates to build powerful links between PEF and their communities, too. Unionized state employees, she said,


earn 30 percent to 35 percent more than their nonunionized counterparts in other states. Such disparities can create envy, so union members must constantly reach out to help workers, who have no unions, to join or form them. “Together, we must work for a better


FISHMAN


Among the speakers who addressed the delegates were Francine Lawrence and Michael Fishman, executive vice presidents of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), respectively. Both were invited to speak at the convention to address concerns PEF members have expressed about the dues paid to AFT and SEIU.


Page 8 — The Communicator November 2012


future for ourselves, for those we serve, and for all Americans,” Lawrence said. Fishman echoed Lawrence’s advice, saying, “We (union members) have a tough time ahead in New York, for both the public and the private sectors. We need each other as never before.” Both Fishman and Lawrence stressed the importance of members taking very active roles in the political campaigns. He told of seeing campaign signs during a recent trip to Virginia that said, “Vote for


Romney-Ryan; The best government is no government.”


“Who benefits from less government?” Fishman asked. “Corporations and the rich. Government is the only thing that can balance their power. There must be a force on the other side and that’s us, unions, to make us (as a nation) go forward.”


Having begun his working life as a


carpenter, Fishman said, taught him “the person making the lowest wage sets the standard. We’ve got to bring up the bottom, and not just the top. If we fail to organize the private sector, it will pull down our standards.”


All unions, Fishman said, must work


hard to get a commitment from the political candidates they support “to help us build a middle class together.” On the second day of the


convention, Juanita Perez Williams, who was once a PEF member, and is now the state Labor Department’s regional representative for central New York, addressed the delegates. She


WILLIAMS


urged the PEF delegates to be “proud of all you do. “Your members need you. Your union needs you. And the state needs you. I get what you do and I thank you for doing it. Please don’t give up or be discouraged. We need you. While you are here, make sure you decide what you need to do to create and protect jobs, jobs, jobs!”


PEF Information Line: 1-800-553-2445


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