Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) President William L. McGowan (1977-88), left, meets with Senate Majority Leader Warren Anderson, right. CSEA attorney Jim Featherstonhaugh is in center.
AFSCME District Council 37 Director Victor Gotbaum with his head at his head while standing at the lecturn at a Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) event. At right are CSEA President William L. McGowan and Executive Vice President Tom McDonough.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) President William L. McGowan (1977-88), left, and CSEA attorney Jim Featherstonhaugh, center, chat with Senate Majority Leader Warren Anderson, right.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) President William L. McGowan (1977-88), right, talks with AFSCME President Jerry Wurf, left, and United States Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan in Washington D.C.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) President William L. McGowan (1977-88), left, with AFSCME President Jerry Wurf. McGowan spearheaded CSEA's 1978 affiliation with the international union, making CSEA its largest affiliate.
William L. McGowan served as the 20th president of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) from 1977 until 1988. McGowan is credited with transforming CSEA into one of New York's most powerful labor unions. McGowan spearheaded CSEA's 1978 affiliation with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). His many accomplishments include: passage of the Public Employee Safety and Health Act, creation of the CSEA Employee Benefit Fund, fighting sex-based wage discrimiation, establishing employee assistance and tuition reimbursement programs and promoting workplace day care centers.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) members parading through the downtown Rochester, New York area during the CSEA 1987 Annual Delegates Meeting, enroute to City Hall where CSEA statewide President William L. McGowan and several other CSEA activists testified before a hearing conducted by the State Senate Standing Committee on Mental Health chaired by New York State Senator Nicholas Spano. They were demanding adequate staffing levels in the states psychiatric facilities and developmental centers. The understaffing issue heated up after Mental Hygiene Therapy Aide Clara Taylor was murdered earlier in the year while working alone on a night shift at the Rockland Psychiatric Center. CSEA has raised the issue of understaffing time and time again and has pushed for corrective measures for years.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) President William L. McGowan speaking with United States Representative Louise M. Slaughter during the CSEA 1987 Annual Delegates Meeting in Rochester, New York. For the 77th consecutive year delegates elected by the membership to help determine the present and future course of their union participated in the democratic process known as the CSEA Annual Delegates Meeting. More than 1,200 delegates attended. Delegates rejected a proposed dues increase; approved several changes in the unions constitution and by-laws; approved the affiliation of CSEA's Retirees Division with AFSCME and reaffirmed overall union policy. The CSEA is New York State's largest union.