Local 203
|
Local 203 |
|
New York State
|
||
Bob Laurenzo gave the Treasurer's Report. Our current balance is $4,103. We spent $165 over our budget in the first quarter 2007, and $250 for the second quarter 2007, The use of rebates has increased. We are still OK in terms of spending for the year. Doug Jasinske made a motion to accept the Treasurer's Report, and Dave LaBombard seconded the motion. The Delmar members accepted the Treasurer's Report unanimously.
Tom discussed the upcoming elections for Steward positions in our agency. We can have up to 6 stewards. We currently have 4. All PEF members in the Agency should have received a petition at home. Anyone interested in running for steward should get at least 5 signatures, but it was recommended to get more due to inaccuracies in signatures which will be thrown out. Tom told the members that as a steward we represent members to management. We haven't had any grievances in many years. The petitions are due in hand at PEF Headquarters by 5 pm on October 15, 2007.
Ron Vero gave a summary of the Convention which was held in NYC for the first time ever. It is very expensive to hold a convention in NYC, so PEF will not be using NYC as a location for future conventions. The next 4 convention locations were voted on at the convention: Niagara Falls, Rochester, Niagara Falls and Washington, D.C. There were approximately 800 delegates at the convention. Governor Spitzer addressed the convention delegates and discussed the contract negotiations in general terms. Regarding the negotiations, Ron said that the teams are meeting weekly, but little substantive progress is being made. The State has not laid out it's demands. The unions, PEF, CSEA and other had agreed to go into negotiations as a coalition. Doug Jasinske, who also attended the convention, reported on two controversial resolutions that were debated during the convention. One dealt with a proposal to change the percentage of signatures needed to run for statewide office from ten to five percent--this resolution failed. The other resolution was to do a formal transcript of the Executive Board meetings and then post them on the internet so that members could have access to the entire record. This resolution passed but could compromise the open discussions at the Executive Board meetings as all of the discussions might be disclosed to Management.
Tom reported on the drawing for the five Scholarships at the Albany membership meeting. The names were drawn randomly from 18 submissions for students enrolled in a full-time program of study. The winners are:
Tom reminded members to sign up for e-mails which links to our Division website (the member needs to provide their home e-mail address). This is a really useful service and one of the few ways that we have to communicate information to members. Tom mentioned that we are working on an electronic bulletin board which will be a great help in posting useful information. Betsy Katz asked the Council if we know whether the unions were consulted/involved in selecting work locations such as Delmar and the NYC Church St. office. As far as we know, the unions were not consulted for either location.
Marty Insogna made a motion to adjourn the meeting, and it was seconded by Donna DeVito. The membership voted unanimously to adjourn at 12:40 pm.
If you would like to get involved, please contact any PEF Steward!