August 6, 2026 — The PEF Contract Team negotiated a five-year tentative agreement with New York State in June, and the PEF Executive Board voted to approve the text and send it to members for ratification consideration.
Dues-paying members of the Professional, Scientific, and Technical (PS&T) bargaining unit as of June 17, 2026, now have the final say.
The agreement lays out the terms of a new five-year contract from April 2, 2026-April 1, 2031. It includes across-the-board wage increases of 4.5%, 4%, 3.5%, 3%, and 3% each year of the deal. It also gives PEF the ability to create an Employee Benefit Fund to administer dental and vision insurance for members, something PEF President Wayne Spence started asking for when he was first elected in 2015.
“There’s $200 million of new money in this contract that no other unions have gotten because they already had the dental,” said President Spence. “I had a conversation with the Governor in the last contract when I asked her if PEF members were genetically superior to other unions because we must not get cavities and gingivitis and all the other things that come with dental health because they were getting way more money than we were — an average of $400 more per year for every member.”
In addition to the major dental upgrades, highlights of the agreement include increases to location pay and the addition of Ulster County to location pay for the Mid-Hudson region, Special Assignment to Duty (SAD) pay increases, lump sum payments for long-term seasonal employees, hazardous duty bonus pay, the release of the total compensation study from the Department of Civil Service, and much more.
RELATED: Check out the highlights and gains and trade-offs of the tentative agreement
Starting in mid-June, PEF President Spence and VP and Contract Chair Darlene Williams were joined by other statewide officers and Contract Team members during a tour that stopped in every PEF Region with one goal — meet withmembers to present the contract and let them ask questions ahead of the ratification vote.
“Members came to these meetings engaged and asking questions,” said Vice President Williams. “I can’t stress enough how important it is for members to exercise their right to vote. They need to do it in big numbers so the State sees how united this union is!”
The most frequent question from members was about the length of the contract.
“When our brothers and sisters at other unions agreed to their contracts, they set the pattern,” said Vice President Williams. “So our team went back and tried to get additional provisions to make this contract better. Which is why we are now looking at better dental coverage, more location pay, and the compensation study.”
For many members, hearing directly from the negotiating team helped them decide how to vote.
“I’m not a huge fan of the five-year, but there is nothing that is being offered that is terribly negative,” said Beth Murray, an RN and PEF Council Leader with OPWDD in Region 2. “I am; however, a huge fan of the raises and cumulative amount of money that gets put back into my pocket.”
By now, all eligible voters should have received a printed and bound copy of the Tentative Agreement, as well as their ballot in a bright yellow envelope. Ballots must be mailed back to PEF’s vote vendor, the American Arbitration Association (AAA), and received by 5 p.m. on August 17. Votes will be counted and results will be reported on August 18.
Any eligible voter who has not received a ballot is urged to call AAA immediately at (800) 529-5218, or email Sacha Uleiro at uleiros@adr.org to request a replacement ballot.
