December 21, 2023 — Rallies and grassroots organizing are one of the strongest tools any labor union can use to make their voices heard on an issue. In 1987, when budget cuts threatened the livelihood of many PEF members, more than 1,000 members from across the state assembled in Albany for what media at the time called the largest public demonstration in the state capital by a single labor union.
“Proposed budget cuts will devastate essential programs in the Labor Department, Mental Health and Mental Retardation,” then-PEF President Rand Condell said at the demonstration, held March 30, 1987 in Albany at the Capitol. “Hundreds of dedicated state employees will be forced out of their jobs. The public will be robbed of services.”
Thanks largely to PEF’s rally and lobbying, lawmakers passed a bill to fund the Department of Labor with an additional $3 million to protect against layoffs until the federal government could provide additional funds. The bill also saved about 130 jobs at Kingsboro Psychiatric Center in Brooklyn.
In 1987, PEF was not yet a decade old and the win demonstrated the growing union’s power and influence.
Thirty-six years later and PEF still relies on member advocacy and large-scale gatherings to show lawmakers our solidarity, as in the Sept. 21, 2023, rally against toxic work environments held during the fall meeting of the PEF Executive Board in Albany.
