{"id":1451,"date":"2022-04-26T16:36:31","date_gmt":"2022-04-26T20:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/?p=1451"},"modified":"2022-04-27T14:50:40","modified_gmt":"2022-04-27T18:50:40","slug":"pef-telephone-town-hall-provides-contract-state-budget-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-40-no-3\/pef-telephone-town-hall-provides-contract-state-budget-updates\/","title":{"rendered":"PEF Telephone Town Hall provides contract, state budget updates"},"content":{"rendered":"

P\"\"EF President Wayne Spence and Legislative Director Patrick Lyons updated members in a telephone town hall April 20 on how the union’s preparations for contract negotiations are progressing, and how some of PEF\u2019s issues fared in the new 2022-23 state budget.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first year we aren\u2019t fighting budget cuts,\u201d Spence said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Spence said PEF\u2019s Contract Team began training March 14-16 for the negotiation of a successor agreement that will pick up when the current contract expires April 1, 2023.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPEF will send a letter (to the Governor\u2019s Office of Employee Relations) demanding that negotiations begin this December or in January 2023,\u201d Spence said.\u00a0 He added that the Civil Service Employees Association has already begun its contract talks with the state.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

PEF wants to hear from members about what their issues and priorities are for the next contract, and Spence said the union will hold contract townhalls throughout the state this year to hear from members.\u00a0 If you want to share your thoughts with the contract team, you don\u2019t have to wait for one of those meetings.\u00a0 Spence said you can email your comments to the team at <\/span>contract2022suggestions@pef.org<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It has been more than a decade since PEF negotiated with a governor not named Cuomo, and Spence said he was encouraged by the way Gov. Kathy Hochul picked up on PEF\u2019s Fund Our Future budgetary concerns that the union shared with her at its 2021 convention in Niagara Falls.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe governor incorporated quite a few of our positions in her budget proposal, and some of those are still in the new state budget,\u201d Spence told members.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To help the state recruit and retain new employees to fill thousands of vacant positions, PEF urged Hochul and legislators to amend the laws that created pension tiers 5 and 6 to make them more attractive for career public servants.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A whopping 48 percent of the state workforce is in Tier 6, Spence said, and its 10-year vesting requirement and benefits \u201care not competitive anymore.\u201d\u00a0 So he was pleased to see lawmakers adopt a five-year vesting period after heavy lobbying from PEF members.\u00a0 In addition, PEF successfully shielded COVID-related overtime from\u00a0 the calculation of mandatory employee contributions to the NYSLERS, allowing members to keep more of the extra money they earned in service to the state..\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lyons reported that PEF also lobbied for bigger state agency budgets, hazardous duty pay for PEF members who were deemed essential and worked on the front lines throughout the pandemic, improved state services for mentally ill and developmentally disabled New Yorkers, and common sense changes to the state\u2019s criminal justice system.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When the state budget was adopted, it contained $10 million in funding for 100 beds for psychiatric patients that the state Office of Mental Health had planned to close.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lyons outlined numerous other positive changes PEF secured in the budget.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

PEF was one of the only public employee unions that fought to secure hazard pay for all \u201cessential\u201d employees and PEF drafted legislation to provide that benefit to members more than two years ago.\u202f While the union wanted a broader benefit that included more \u201cessential\u201d employees,\u202fPEF\u202fdid support<\/span> Gov. Hochul\u2019s workforce bonus for healthcare and mental hygiene personnel that will award $3,000 in extra pay for their sacrifices during the pandemic. The union will continue to push for the bonus to expand all state employees who were deemed \u201cessential\u201d during the COVID state of emergency.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, the budget contains student loan forgiveness for nurses in hard-to-staff areas of the state, a proposal that originated in the PEF Nurses Committee.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese conversations began last fall after Hochul took office in August 2021,\u201d Lyons said. PEF made its case for these changes by writing editorials in newspapers, forming coalitions with other interested parties, testifying before legislative committees, direct lobbying and sending approximately 14,000 letters from members to lawmakers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe thank every one of you who wrote those letters,\u201d Spence said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYour work supports what we (in PEF\u2019s Legislative Department) do at the Capitol,\u201d Lyons said.\u00a0 \u201cWe were most successful where we sent the most letters.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lyons and Spence said PEF continues to need that member action to keep moving forward on important issues.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe got the door to hazardous duty pay open.\u00a0 We can keep building on that going forward,\u201d Spence said. \u201cWe are the first union in New York to have language in our contract on telecommuting, and we are going to build on this.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The president also urged members to use their vacation leave before it expires, especially with many members now able to take time off with the COVID state of emergency ended.\u00a0 \u201cUse your vacation leave.\u00a0 Do not give it back to the state of New York.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PEF President Wayne Spence and Legislative Director Patrick Lyons updated members in a telephone town hall April 20 on how the union’s preparations for contract negotiations are progressing, and how…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1151,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"division":[],"allowed_regions":[],"allowed_divisions":[],"class_list":["post-1451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","issue-volume-40-no-3","issue-volume-40-no-4"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPEF Telephone Town Hall provides contract, state budget updates - PEF Communicator<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-40-no-3\/pef-telephone-town-hall-provides-contract-state-budget-updates\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PEF Telephone Town Hall provides contract, state budget updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"PEF President Wayne Spence and Legislative Director Patrick Lyons updated members in a telephone town hall April 20 on how the union’s preparations for contract negotiations are progressing, and how...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-40-no-3\/pef-telephone-town-hall-provides-contract-state-budget-updates\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PEF Communicator\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-26T20:36:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-27T18:50:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/02\/tele-feature.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"435\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ccanham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ccanham\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-40-no-3\\\/pef-telephone-town-hall-provides-contract-state-budget-updates\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-40-no-3\\\/pef-telephone-town-hall-provides-contract-state-budget-updates\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"ccanham\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0677b03b1fcdadfe00f4e905b97b90e4\"},\"headline\":\"PEF Telephone Town Hall provides contract, state budget updates\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-26T20:36:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-27T18:50:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-40-no-3\\\/pef-telephone-town-hall-provides-contract-state-budget-updates\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":793,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-40-no-3\\\/pef-telephone-town-hall-provides-contract-state-budget-updates\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2022\\\/02\\\/tele-feature.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-40-no-3\\\/pef-telephone-town-hall-provides-contract-state-budget-updates\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/communicator.pef.org\\\/issue\\\/volume-40-no-3\\\/pef-telephone-town-hall-provides-contract-state-budget-updates\\\/\",\"name\":\"PEF Telephone Town Hall provides contract, state budget updates - 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