Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Metropolitan Region President George Boncoraglio, shown in this 2011 photo, retired after 40 years in the labor movement. A hands-on leader since his days as a mental health therapy aide at South Beach Psychiatric Center, Boncoraglio was always known and feared by management. While the topic of race played a very sensitive and often tense role during his early years as region president, Boncoraglio's fairness and insistence on coalition building helped the region become very important in terms of influence within the union.
Photo of the Month in the October 2011 Work Force. Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Statewide Secretary Denise Berkley lights a candle in honor of the CSEA members and other workers lost from the state Department of Taxation and Finance on September 11, 2001, at a September 8, 2011, ceremony at the department's New York City offices. CSEA honored all of those who lost their lives to the attacks, including 2,753 people at the World Trade Center. Among the World Trade Center losses are CSEA members Yvette Anderson, Florence Cohen, Harry Goody, Marian "Marty" Hrycak and Dorothy Temple. All were employed at the state Department of Taxation and Finance.
A photo of Omayra Camacho, a crime victims specialist for the state Office of Victim Services, used in a special section of the September 2011 Work Force: Always Remember: A commemorative 10th anniversary retrospective published by the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA). Camacho was among the first responders assisting the families and victims of the September 11 attacks. She now assists people who were involved in the cleanup, many of whom have developed cancer, were exposed to asbestos and have other illnesses.
A photo used in the special section of the September 2011 Work Force, Always Remember: A commemorative 10th anniversary retrospective. Deborah Hanna, Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Health Research, Inc. Local president, stands in front of the nation's largest construction project, the World Trade Center. Following the attack, it was the nation's largest toxic waste site, which led Hanna and other union activists to create the 90 Church Street Coalition in order to protect the safety and health of workers and local residents being relocated. The 90 Church St. building is the smaller one on the right. On the left is the Liberty Tower under construction and next to it is World Trade Center 7, which is already occupied.
A photo used in the special section of the September 2011 Work Force, Always Remember: A commemorative 10th anniversary retrospective published by the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA). Co-workers at the state Department of Taxation and Finance and survivors who worked on the 86th floor of Tower 2 of the World Trade Center, from left, Margaret Ramsay, Terrel Silver and Marcia Smart, pay their respects to 39 co-workers who perished on September 11, 2001 at a memorial in their Brooklyn office.
Photo of the Month for September 2011, edition of The Work Force. Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) members and activists including Health Research Inc. Local President Deb Hanna, Jacqueline Stanford, Mary Harmon, Angelina Black and Damaris Rodriguez join Communication Workers of America (CWA) members on the Verizon picket line in lower Manhattan. Harmon's son is a Verizon worker. CWA members and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) struck at Verizon for two weeks in August over the bargaining terms for a new contract. The unions and Verizon have returned to the bargaining table.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) participated in memorial events in New York City and Albany on March 25 to mark the centennial of Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York's Greenwich Village that claimed the lives of 146 people, mostly young, immigrant women. In this photo Metropolitan Region President George Boncoraglio places a flower outside the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory building in Manhattan.
The cover of the May 2011 Work Force: We Are One! Unions fight back against attacks on rights, public sector services. A day of action was held across the country on April 4, culminating in hundreds of We Are One rallies, emphasizing workers' rights and the growing gulf between the super rich and everyone else. Pictured here is a group of Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) activists crossing the Brooklyn Bridge.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Metropolitan Region activists Delphine Moultrie, far left, and Joe Aravena, chair of the region's Education Committee, far right, helped U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Region Director Dr. Jaime Torres coordinate a local launch for First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! initiative, which is aimed at solving childhood obesity within a generation.
The Photo of the Month in the April 2011 Work Force. Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Statewide Secretary Denise Berkley joins other activists in delivering a letter from workers to Assemblyman Peter Rivera, during the Annual Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Conference in Albany. The letter, which was distributed to attendees through the conference, illustrated the devastating impact Governor Andrew Cuomo's budget will have on communities and encourages Assembly members to fight for a better New York for all. The annual conference draws hundreds of legislators, community leaders, groups and organizations from across the state.