1,100 NY Officers Get New Union

Stony Brook University Police officers participate in Operation Silver Drill

A new police union was approved Friday in New York to represent 1,100 state university, park and conservation officers and forest rangers.

The Public Employment Relations Board said it unanimously approved the certification of the Police Benevolent Association of New York State. The union was formed earlier this year.

The workers had been represented by Council 82 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. In May, members rejected a labor contract with a pay freeze proposed by the Cuomo administration by a 2-to-1 margin. They’ve been without a new contract since 2005.

PBA President Manuel Vilar, a park police sergeant on Long Island, said the union’s top concern are negotiations that have languished too long and failed to include the voice of members.

“The campaign to declare independence was built around a simple notion, that for women and men of law enforcement serving in state agencies deserve to be represented by those who know their concerns, and the needs of their families,” he said.

A majority of members submitted cards supporting the change, according to the PBA.

In a July 15 letter, Council 82 told members it was clear a majority believed PBA’s promises of progress and was withdrawing its representation, also saying that decertification had created ill will and further delayed a contract.

A call to Council 82 was not immediately returned Friday.

The rejected contract included a pay freeze, elimination of automatic “step” increases and more payments by employees for their health care over the next three years.

The Civil Service Employees Association, representing 66,000 state workers, has since approved by a 3-to-2 margin a five-year contract with no pay increases for three years but with 2 percent increases in the fourth and fifth years, plus an increase in their health care contributions. Employees will get a one-time retention payment of $775 in 2013 and $225 in 2014 in recognition of working without a wage increase for three years.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said repeatedly that if unions reject contract concessions he would proceed with the nearly 1,000 layoffs he said would be needed to achieve similar savings.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.