{"id":9723,"date":"2026-09-15T10:35:46","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T14:35:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/?p=9723"},"modified":"2026-09-15T10:43:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T14:43:43","slug":"the-best-of-pef-was-on-display-this-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-44-no-7\/the-best-of-pef-was-on-display-this-month\/","title":{"rendered":"The best of PEF was on display this month\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wow, what a month! Since I last wrote in mid-August, members in the Professional, Scientific, and Technical unit ratified a new five-year contract, we celebrated Labor Day across the State with parades and family activities, and we blew up our 20\u2019 inflatable bull on a New York City street to call out toxic management at the Department of Financial Services.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I believe those three things really showcase the best of this union \u2013 we protect and enforce the rights of our members, we act in solidarity, and we fight for every members\u2019 safety and respect on the job.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My top priority this year was negotiating a fair and just contract. We secured one with higher annual raises in the first years of the deal so that your paychecks will compound more over time, delivering a 19.3% salary increase through 2031. The 4.5% retroactive raise will hit your bank accounts on either Sept. 23 or Oct. 1<\/a> depending on your payroll. But we didn\u2019t just accept the exact same deal offered to other bargaining units. By hanging tough and rallying outside the State Capitol in Albany during the final days of negotiations, we also secured the right to create a PEF Employee Benefit Fund to administer new dental and vision benefits, something I\u2019ve been pushing for since first elected in 2015 and was told would never happen. We are now exploring options and will have more to report as 2026 comes to a close, but I\u2019m confident the new plan will provide more options for members in rural parts of the State, along with improved benefits.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the solidarity front, it was heartwarming to see so many members turn out for Labor Day activities in Regions 1, 3, 4, 7 and 8<\/a>. Region 1 Coordinator Vinny Cicatello tells me it was the biggest Buffalo parade in nearly 10 years! And in Albany, PEF Region 8 Coordinator Danielle Bridger reports nearly 2,000 of the attendees at the Capital District Area Labor Federation family day in Troy were PEF members. I heard the same level of enthusiasm from PEF leaders in Rochester, Syracuse, and Massena.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The day after Labor Day, PEF inflated our two-story bull called S.T.O.M.P. (Stop Treating Our Members Poorly) outside the Department of Financial Services (DFS) in New York City<\/a>. The powerful people inside that building tried really hard to squash our rally, but when this union sets its mind to something, we get it done! At the rally, I called for an independent review of the work of the Anti-Discrimination Investigations Divisions, which as part of the Office of Employee Relations has proven over the years that it is incapable of investigating claims made by State employees against management. It is something we will not be quiet about in the months ahead. Members at various agencies, from DOCCS to OMH to OPWDD and many more, have shared with me stories about being disrespected, discriminated against, and otherwise treated unfairly by career mid-level managers, and S.T.O.M.P. was created as a bold reminder that PEF is not going to take it anymore.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, a word about the 25<\/span>th<\/span> anniversary of 9\/11, which I marked at the Department of Taxation and Finance in New York City<\/a>, while other PEF leaders held a ceremony at the workers\u2019 memorial<\/a> located outside union headquarters in Latham, N.Y. Thirty-four members were killed on that day, one of the darkest in this country\u2019s history. <\/span>PEF presented plaques to family members, who recalled the work of the union in helping them navigate the immediate and long-term consequences of the tragedy. It was a solemn event, but a powerful reminder of why unions exist \u2013 to take care of each other in good times and bad. Thank you for your membership and may God bless you and your families.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wow, what a month! Since I last wrote in mid-August, members in the Professional, Scientific, and Technical unit ratified a new five-year contract, we celebrated Labor Day across the State…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"division":[],"allowed_regions":[],"allowed_divisions":[],"class_list":["post-9723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","issue-volume-44-no-7"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe best of PEF was on display this month\u00a0 - 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-44-no-7\/the-best-of-pef-was-on-display-this-month\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The best of PEF was on display this month\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Wow, what a month! 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