Design, build, inspect: The engineering of public safety

Forty-two years ago, John Meehan’s family moved to Long Island. Meehan’s father, a metal lather, worked on the Long Island Expressway (LIE) construction project from Exit 61 to Exit 73.

“Today, I’m inspecting the bridges that my Dad helped build on the LIE,” says Meehan, a bridge inspection team leader for the New York State Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Region 10, which encompasses Nassau and Suffolk Counties in Long Island.

January 2007 marked Meehan’s 18th year with DOT. Since he started his career, the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) member has worn many hats. Meehan has worked in three of the department’s 11 regions, starting as a senior engineering technician and working his way, both at DOT and through college, to a civil engineer I and, today, civil engineer II.

As a team leader, Meehan is requir-ed to have a professional engineer license—a two-exam process that spans several years. The first exam is taken before graduation from college, followed by accredited experience and the second exam. “It takes about four years to get the experience so you can take the other eight-hour exam,” Meehan explains.

“I love my job,” says Meehan. “There are accomplishments every day. The day-to-day job is rating elements on a one-to-seven scale—inventorying a bridge. All the information gets put into a database so [DOT] can plan and prioritize repairs. But that starts with me, my team, my assistant.”

There are more than 700 bridges in Meehan’s DOT region. During any given year, Meehan inspects upwards of 100 bridges.

Salary data

PEF is currently in contract negotiations. Across-the-board salary increases are a priority for the union at the negotiation table.

In this round of negotiations, PEF also is seeking location pay for members like Meehan who work and live in higher cost-of-living areas, including the mid-Hudson regions, which are made up of New York City, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Duchess and Putnam Counties.

“Taxes are high on Long Island,” Meehan says, noting that the higher cost of living in his area translates into a lower standard of living.

Securing location pay to reinvigorate the value of his paycheck is important to Meehan, who noted that the federal government adjustment for federal employees in the downstate area is 10.59 percent.

According to the 2006 AFT Public Employees Compensation Survey, which features compensation data for 45 occupations through March 1, 2006, the salary range for a civil engineer I in New York was $47,759 to $59,182, with an average base salary of $57,799.

According to the same survey:

• Median salaries for state-employed transportation civil engineers range from $41,697 to $65,256.
• Median salaries of state bridge inspectors range from $31,816 to $49,263.
• The median salary in the private sector for a civil engineer or a construction inspector was $65,036 and $45,580, respectively.

Alaska, California and Colorado pay among the highest minimum salaries for a transportation civil engineer I: Alaska, $56,760; California, $61,620; and Colorado, $56,604.

Kentucky, Montana and New Hampshire are among the lowest paying, with minimum salaries for civil engineers registering $33,255 in Kentucky, $30,544 in Montana, and $29,133 in New Hampshire.

The AFT Public Employees Compensation Survey, the nation’s singular source on state compensation structures and salaries, is available at www.aft.org/pubemps. The 2007 survey will be released Sept. 3.

University professionals join AFT

A unit of 1,816 administrative professionals has now officially joined the ranks of certified AFT bargaining agents at Rutgers University.

On June 7, the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission issued its stamp of approval for the local, the Union of Rutgers Administrators/AFT, which filed a majority of cards under the state’s automatic recognition card-check law on April 25.

A week later URA members Nat Bender, Darlene Smith and Jenell Weitz were in Las Vegas, participating in the AFT Public Employees and AFT Healthcare joint conference. (See conference coverage on pages 4-5.)

“This is a huge and hard-won victory,” says AFT organizing director Phil Kugler. It came after the tenacious administrative professionals courageously hung tough in the face of a hostile employer’s anti-union campaign.

Rutgers University president Richard McCormick signed a neutrality agreement with the union in January—after the intercession of N.J. State AFL-CIO president Charlie Wowkanech, the AFT, the national AFL-CIO and numerous elected officials.

Specifically, Gov. Jon Corzine and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) came to campus to support the workers. Gov. Corzine, Sen. Menendez and many state legislators worked behind the scenes to ensure that workers’ rights were protected.

The URA/AFT is the largest union formed to date under New Jersey’s two-year-old card-check law. It joins previously established unions for full- and part-time faculty on campus, who are represented jointly by the AFT and the American Association of University Professors.

Sneak peek
2007 Compensation Survey

From 2006 to 2007, the average annual salary increase—the mean increase—for state employees was nearly 6 percent, according to preliminary results of the AFT Public Employees 2007 Compensation Survey.

Architects, employee benefits analysts, chemists and teachers are among the occupations registering the highest mean percentage increases from 2006 to 2007.

Consistent with previous surveys, unionized state employees with collective bargaining have higher salaries than their counterparts working for states without collective bargaining rights.

The final survey, which is scheduled to be released Labor Day, is the nation’s exclusive compilation of state compensation structures and salaries. Information on 45 occupations are contained in the 2007 survey.

The survey will be available at the AFT Web site (www.aft.org/pubemps) Sept. 3.