October 24, 2023 — The theme of the 45th Annual PEF Convention was “Better Together.”
During his ninth State of the Union address, President Wayne Spence backed that up with facts from the year since the last Convention, including the negotiation of a strong contract, victories in the legislature, community outreach and union engagement, and PEF’s unwavering push to increase membership.
“Someone at our last Executive Board meeting brought up the bundle of pencils metaphor,” he said. “Hold one pencil in your hand and you can snap it; hold a dozen, good luck. It’s not going to break. PEF is more than 50,000 strong and we are still growing.”
Building our Strength
Spence recognized the Organizing Department for a stellar job in 2023, traveling the state to meet with members and energize them to be part of PEF. Those efforts brought in more than 5,000 new members.
“I can remember standing here in 2018 and 2019, after the Janus decision, talking about emergency plans to keep this union intact if members quit in droves like the Supreme Court gave them the opportunity to do,” he said. “We welcomed 5,389 new members from January 1 to September 21. In a union of 50,000, that’s 10% growth. Our goal was 2,500 for the whole year: that’s 216% better than our forecast.”
To support the effort, Spence said the union hired regional staff and purchased and branded vehicles for easier travel. “I’m happy to report that those investments have paid for themselves already with the dues from the new members,” he said.
Bu PEF is not only building strength in numbers: it’s also building political strength.
In April 2023, the union leveraged its membership numbers and gathered more than 10,000 signatures in support of the Fund Our Future for a Thriving New York campaign. The magnitude of that was demonstrated during an event in the Legislative Office Building.
“There are a lot of specific demands on there, about reforming the Civil Service system, more beds and staff at mental health facilities, and ending the waste that happens every time the state contracts out projects,” Spence said. “Let me tell you, turns out 10,000 signatures look mighty impressive when printed on a 42-foot-long, 4-foot-wide banner and rolled down the steps! It was a great visual to show lawmakers that we are united and to push for salary upgrades across all titles.”
Contract with No Givebacks
Among PEF’s accomplishments this past year, the 2023-2026 PS&T Contract tops the list, which delivered 3% annual raises, a $3,000 signing bonus, a $600 Higher Education Differential, a $400 dental stipend, and more.
“This was the fourth contract I negotiated as president and is the best so far,” Spence said. “This contract contains more than $1 billion in what we call ‘new money’ – those are dollars that weren’t in previous contracts and that your Contract Team negotiated on your behalf. A member pulled me aside at a recent event and said this is the best contract she’s had as a state employee – and she’s been a public servant for 32 years.”
Not all the wins were purely economic.
The contract includes 12 weeks of Fully Paid Parental Leave and ends sunsets on several benefits, including the Productivity Enhancement Program and the Article 15 tuition reimbursement benefit.
“It’s clear from this contract that the state finally heard us,” Spence said. “The state has more than 15,000 vacant jobs and thousands more state employees are retiring every year. New York needs to offer competitive compensation and benefits to retain and attract public servants.”
Click here for more information on the 2023-2026 PS&T contract.
The Year in Highlights
From November 2022 to the present, PEF has been throughout the state, and even overseas, advancing the union’s issues and goals, growing political power, and cementing itself as a leader in the labor movement.
“SOMOS is where the budget really takes shape, months before the governor even releases her executive budget,” Spence said, referring to SOMOS El Future in Puerto Rico. “All the decision makers are there. In 2021 and 2022, we handed out materials and talked about the union’s priorities in the Fund Our Future campaign. When the governor released her executive budget, Fund Our Future language was included in there. PEF has earned a right to be in ‘the room where it happens’ and we aren’t going to stop now.”
This year, PEF leaders will head to SOMOS again and push for a dental plan that works, a two-grade upgrade for all state workers, and the key issues in the 2024 state legislative agenda adopted at Convention.
Last December, PEF secured salary reallocation for members at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, a significant win in a member-driven fight; the state welcomed the exit of OCFS Commissioner Sheila Poole, the first step in tearing down the toxic environment at that agency; and PEF mobilized in support of the people of Buffalo when they were hammered by a record-breaking blizzard.
“As the calendar flipped to 2023, PEF kicked off a new initiative with our friends at AFT called First Book: Reading Opens the World,” Spence said. “The mission was to give kids at OMH and OCFS facilities access to free books. These kids are all too often forgotten by the system.”
PEF visited two campuses of the New York Children’s Center in the Bronx and Queens, an OCFS facility in Rochester, Finger Lakes Residential Center, and Elmira Psychiatric Center. Each event was a joint effort between management and the union.
“That kind of labor-management solidarity makes a difference,” Spence said. “Management leaves these events with a lot of goodwill toward our union and that only helps us down the line when we have an issue that needs resolving.”
The union hosted an International Women’s Day event at the New York City office on March 6, 2023, inviting more than 20 members of Public Services International from 10 different countries who were in town for a U.N. conference.
“No matter what language, the message was familiar,” Spence said. “Organized labor around the world faces the same threats. Health care providers from different countries said their unions struggle to keep members safe on the job and they shared their practices for holding management accountable. This exchange of information makes us stronger.”
Perhaps PEF’s biggest community engagement project was the first annual Wellness Fair and AFT Book Giveaway held in Albany in April, where the union brought together more than 40 vendors and gave away 20,000 books to students and teachers.
“This is just another great example of the state, PEF and the community coming together to serve everyone, funding our future so New Yorkers can thrive,” the president said.
In the following months, PEF supported a parole officer who was blocked from leaving the home of a parolee by attending the court hearing in Cohoes and speaking out about the pitfalls and failings of the Less is More parole reform. The union made a strong showing at area Labor Day parades in PEF Regions 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11 and 12, including the parade in the streets of New York City, where 200 PEF members marched up Fifth Avenue.
“Dozens of PEF members carried signs calling out New York state for workplace bullying and creating toxic work environments,” Spence said. “Other union members and labor leaders came up to me and said thank you for carrying that message.”
That wasn’t the end of that advocacy.
The Executive Board marched to and around the Empire State Plaza in September carrying the same signs, gaining valuable media coverage, and sending a message to the governor and the Office of Employee Relations.
“Some leaders in this room have told me that you’ve seen changes in your workplaces since that rally,” Spence said. “This campaign is just getting started. There are a lot of state workers who would love to shine a light on this, but they’re afraid. It’s up to us to give them a voice. It’s time to tell management ‘Enough is Enough. We’re in this fight now and we’re not backing down.”