Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) members chanting "Main Street, not Wall Street," thousands of working New Yorkers converged on the state Capitol in Albany, January 7, 2009 to participate in the March for Main Street.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) President Danny Donohue leads the march for Main Street. Thousands of working New Yorkers converged on the state Capitol to March for Main Street to tell Governor David Paterson that his budget priorities should lie with Main Street, not Wall Street.
The Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) cartoon depicts former Governor Mario Cuomo filling a crack with piles of dirt representing state services. Governor Cuomo proposed massive mid-year budget cuts that included thousands of layoffs, deep cuts in state services and sharp slashes in aid for local governments and school districts. Governor Cuomo also called for mandatory, five-day furloughs in pay for all state employees that would cut workers' salaries by 2 percent.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) members, Joe Kevlin, center, of the state Education Department Local, his son Patrick Kevlin, a College of St. Rose student, and Jim Dunden, also of the state Education Department Local, work to get out the vote on Election Day in the Capital Region.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) VOICE Local leaders and negotiating team members Beth White, a child care provider from Ulster County (foreground left) and Patrick Hogan, a child care provider from Westchester County (foreground right) meeting with United States Senator Hillary Clinton and other AFSCME child care providers to discuss home-based childcare industry issues. Clinton announced that day the Quality Childcare for America Act. The act would increase funding for worker development programs and block grant funding by $200 million. CSEA is New York State's largest union.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Western Region Judiciary Local member Terry M. Arzac, who works as a translator between English and Spanish, making sure the right words are recorded in court proceedings. The photo was used in the February 2008 Work Force, CSEA's monthly publication, in an article highlighting CSEA members across New York State who play a key role in the states Unified Court System. Arzac is a certified court interpreter with the 8th Judicial District in Western New York. CSEA is New York State's largest union.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) member, Albany Airport Training and Safety Officer, Bobby Allen at the airfield maintenance division. Albany International Airport workers were negotiating their first contract since they became part of CSEA after 13 months of fighting for the right to join a union.
Drs. Michael Wilkins, left, and William Bronston sit for an interview for the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) 100 History project. The two were instrumental in revealing the terrible conditions at the Willowbrook School for the Mentally Retarded in the 1970s. Excerpts of the interview were featured on the publications Leading Edge page, with a note that the full interviews for the CSEA 100 History project are as part of CSEA's official archives at the M.E. Grenander Special Collections at the University at Albany.
Ed Collins, president of the Clarkson University Local, who received the 2007 Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Mission Achievement Award for the private sector division. He was honored with the prestigious award for his leadership of his co-workers during the union's organizing and subsequent contract campaign at Clarkson. In 2006, Collins led CSEA-represented facilities and services workers at Clarkson through a public contract campaign after university administrators offered the employees a wage increase that would not allow them to keep up with rising costs of living. He is credited as a key force in holding the members together in solidarity throughout the campaign.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) member Enkelejd Hoxha, a custodial worker at the State University of New York at Albany, who is enrolled in the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program. Hoxha is learning more English because he eventually wants to go to college. The classes are made possible by a New York State & CSEA Partnership for Education and Training grant that shows the best in labor-management collaboration.
Heavy equipment that the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)'s Oswego County highway crew uses to cut back snow banks recently in the village of Parish, NY. Parts of the county have been hit with more than 10 feet of snow, keeping highway workers and other state and municipal workers busy. The CSEA is New York's largest union.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) member Patricia Smith with one of her canine charges. CSEA members across New York State are often called upon to come to the rescue of abused or neglected animals, while at the same time keeping the public safe from wild and feral creatures that pose a threat. In addition to the 40 hours per week her job requires, Smith makes extra night and weekend trips to the dog shelter ensuring the dogs receive hands-on care following their stints with homelessness or abuse. When she's not taking care of the eight or so dogs at the shelter, Smith is responsible for enforcing animal codes in the town. The CSEA is New York State's largest union.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Buffalo State College Local President Helen Hughes, right, and 1st Vice President Jerry Richmond, demonstrating a blind corner in the college's tunnel system. The photograph was used in CSEA's union publication, The Work Force, to illustrate safety concerns CSEA members have and how members and activists across the state have been proactive in using the Worksite Security Act to address potential risks to workers and the public in public buildings and work sites. The CSEA is New York State's largest union.
Suffolk County, New York daycare provider Roxanne Savage, pointing to the daycare's information center where tips on child care, nutrition and safety are posted. Independent child care providers across New York State came one step closer to having a union voice after Governor Eliot Spitzer signed an executive order on May 8, 2007, allowing them union representation.
Unidentified Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) members, retirees, and their supporters in the Village of Skaneateles, New York, who lined the street to protest a vote by the Village Board that eliminated health care coverage in retirement for many current and future retirees. The union then packed a village board meeting to condemn the board members for failing to bring the issue to the union prior to their action.
New York State Veteran's Home at Batavia Director of Nursing Barbara Bates, Administrator Joanne Hernick, Certified Nurse Aide Paul Blujus and Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Occpational Health and Safety Specialist John Bieger discussing the nursing home's success with zero lift at a safe patient handling seminar in Albany, New York. CSEA is leading a statewide coalition of health care organizations, labor organizations and safety advocates that say it's time to stop requiring New Yorks health care workers to manually lift patients in their care, seriously injuring thousands of hospital and nursing home workers every year.
Unidentifed Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) members, officers, activists and their guests take part in the Labor Day parade held at the 2007 New York State Fair in Syracuse. CSEA members across the state marked Labor Day 2007 with parades, picnics and other special events.
Unidentified Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) members demonstrating at the Peru School District because the district refused to pay retiree health benefits to Ken LaMoy, a former co-worker who is battling cancer. Nearly 100 North Country members turned out for the demonstration, held before a board of education meeting at which the grievance was heard.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)'s cartoon depicting Flotsam and Jetsam: New York taxpayers drowning in a flood, waving a flag for help, while Governor Paterson offers to cut more services and programs and add more fees and taxes. CSEA (lifeboat) offers to throw a life preserver (Revenue-raising ideas).
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) member, Schaunderlon White, right, serves Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance clients with the same dedication as she serves her union. The agency provides services for individuals who have been injured, have a disability or are unable to work and provide for themselves or their families for other reasons.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) member, Basil Townsend of the Hudson Valley DDSO (Developmental Disabilities Services Office) Local is PEOPLE (Public Employees Organized to Promote Legislative Equality) Recruiter for the month of November. He recruited 38 new PEOPLE members at the MVP level. CSEA's PEOPLE program protects and improves our jobs, benefits and pensions in Washington, Albany and in your community.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) members including Metropolitan Region President George Boncoraglio, center, demonstrate outside state Senator Majority Leader Malcolm Smith's district office in Queens. CSEA's response has been swift and unrelenting in a drive to expose the dangers of Governor David Paterson's strong-arm threat to lay off 8,700 state employees if CSEA and other unions won't agree to his concession demands.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Metropolitan Region members joined other AFSCME activists and members of the Coalition of Labor Union Women at the 3rd annual Walk to Beat the Clock in Washington, D.C. The walk helps to raise money and awareness about cervical cancer. It was started by Tamika Felder, an AFSCME member and cervical cancer survivor (holding the CSEA banner on the left) who formed Tamika and Friends, a movement to end cervical cancer.
Harry Albright discusses his experiences withthe Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)during a 2005 interview for the CSEA 100 History project. Albright, who served as counsel to CSEA from the mid-1950s until the mid-1960s, passed away in October, 2008. As counsel, he was deeply involved in advancing the association's agenda and representing members' interests through the legislative and legal systems.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Nassau County Municipal Local President John Shepherd fires up the crowd at a demonstration in Glen Cove, New York, to fight the county's sewer district consolidation plan. CSEA is blasting a secretive City of Glen Cove vote to transfer sewer operations to Nassau County. CSEA represents many full-time employees in the city, some of whom work at the water pollution control facility. These members now face the choice of reassignment to other city jobs, retirement or resignation. CSEA is New York State's largest employee union.
Unidentified Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) East Hampton Unit members demonstrate outside the town hall against the town supervisor's plan to change health benefits. It was agreed under the current contract with the town, that runs through 2010, that medical benefits would not be changed in any way until the current contract expires. The town of East Hampton is in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) members, Irene Tossone with Norman Ebanks inside the Supreme Court Appellate Division 1st Department building in Manhattan, New York, where they work. Tossone is a secretary to a judge; Ebanks serves as a court officer. CSEA is New York State's largest union.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Delegates Bob Nurse, left, and John "Bunny" Jackson listen at a special delegates meeting on September 9, 1986 to consider CSEA developing an in-house legal department.
Joan Phelps, school nurse and Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Oakfield-Alabama School District Unit president, uses one of the newly installed hand sanitizer dispensers in Oakfield-Alabama Middle and High School in Genesee County, New York. The sanitizers were installed after an outbreak of MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) was reported in the school district. CSEA members working in schools and health care facilities across New York state are challenged to protect the public from the dangerous MRSA infections on a daily basis.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) member Gerard Zlotkowski, a Smithtown Fire District Firehouse Attendant, at work taking a call for help. Zlotkowski was honored by the town of Smithtown, New York, for his quick action that a saved a woman's life. CSEA members in the Smithtown Fire District are skilled, compassionate caregivers who are often unsung heroes. The district, which serves Smithtown and four other municipalities, serves more than 100,000 residents.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) member Krista Neville, at work as a cashier in the Cayuga County Department of Motor Vehicles in Auburn, New York. Neville's suggestion that something be put in the computer system asking about club membership for snowmobile registrants was adopted statewide in the form of a new pop-up screen that asks about club membership and automatically calculates the correct fee.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Treasurer Maureen Malone at a table selling "CSEA Cooks From the Heart" cookbooks at the 2006 Women's Conference in Tarrytown, New York. Malone was a leader in CSEA's ongoing efforts to build CSEA Street in Louisiana, which suffered extreme damage from hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. She spearheaded the cookbook consisting of recipes from union members and staff to help raise money toward the project. Malone is retiring from her union office as well as her state job after 33 years as a CSEA activist. The CSEA is New York State's largest union.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) members and Van Duyn Home and Hospital workers working the phone banks to fight to keep the home open. Van Duyn Unit officer Ruth Smith seated with her back to the camera, displays a T-shirt with the slogan CSEA developed, "Don't Cut Our Safety Net." The Onondaga County public nursing home was recommended by the Berger Commission to be taken over by a nearby private hospital late in 2006. However, it has been deterimined that the Van Duyn Home will remain publicly owned and operated.
Department of Health Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)representative Marie Rogers and CSEA Health Research Inc. Local President Deb Hanna discussing safety concerns at 90 Church St. in New York City with United States Representative Jerrold Nadler. Double windows were installed at the building after a long fight by CSEA activists to improve the health and safety of workers who were moved to the building which was contaminated during the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.
New York State Assemblyman Peter Rivera, standing, speaking with concerned Bronx Psychiatric Center (BPC) workers at a meeting where labor and management addressed the Center's safety risks. Listening are, from left, Office of Mental Health Director Lloyd Sederer, Public Employees Federation (PEF) Council Leader Darlene Williams, Bronx Psychiatric Center Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Local President Abraham Benjamin, PEF Vice President Pat Baker and CSEA Metropolitan Region Executive Vice President Denise Berkley. At BPC alone, some 38 accidents and injuries had been reported the month before the meeting, the highest in any state mental health facility.
Independent childcare provider Christine Longo of Saratoga County, NY with one of the children she cares for as a group provider. Independent child care providers across New York State came one step closer to having a union voice after Governor Eliot Spitzer signed an executive order on May 8, 2007, allowing them union representation.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Scholarship Committee members meeting to decide the winners of the union's Irving Flaumenbaum, Pearl Carroll and Met Life Scholarship Awards for 2007. From left are Janice Beaulieu, Anita Booker, Maria Navarro, Gary Lanahan, Donna Gavitt, Judy DiPaola and Committee Chair Helen Fischedick. CSEA presents college scholarship awards to children of CSEA members from across the state every year.
New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, left, with United States Senator Hillary Clinton and Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) President Danny Donohue at the CSEA announcement of CSEA's endorsement of Clinton for president of the United States.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Metropolitan Region President George Boncoraglio leading marchers at a labor rally in New York City. Around New York State, CSEA members take part annually in labor events and parades around Labor Day weekend. In 2004 the rights of working people were under attack. Under the Bush administration Americans saw the loss of 1.7 million jobs, erosion of health insurance coverage along with higher prices, gutting of workers safety and health protections and a National Labor Relations Board hell-bent on benefiting employers at the expense of workers.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) President Danny Donohue, left, and Retiree Division Chair Charles Peritore, right, congratulate Sam Mogavero on being honored with the Donald Webster Memorial Mission Achievement Award. Mogavero, 89, retired in 1980 after more than 23 years as a building custodian for the Lake Shore Central School District in Erie County. Now, he continues his union activism as vice president of the Buffalo-Niagara Frontier Retirees Local.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) member Carol Rogers, a park naturalist for the Niagara Region Interpretive Programs Office at Fort Niagara State Park in Niagara Falls, shows off some of her (stuffed) furry friends to fairgoers at the 2007 New York State Fair in Syracuse.
Unidentified Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) members, some from the Erie County Local, march in the 2007 Labor Day parade in Buffalo, New York.
Jerry Knapp of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Cortland County Local agrees with his local's decision to bargain for the Strategic Benefit Trust's prescription drug buying program. Negotiating the trust's benefits into a contract can be a more cost-efficient way to provide health benefits for some public employees and could in some cases, be the only way to get benefits to the private sector.
A Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) member proudly displays a whistle bearing the CSEA and AFSCME logos during a rally preceding the March for Main Street on January 7, 2009, at the Times Union Center in Albany. The whistle, one of several giveaways marchers received upon arriving in Albany, was just one of the many ways union activists made themselves heard to challenge Governor David Paterson's state budget proposal.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Metropolitan Region State Employees Local member Will James keeps the crowd fired up at the Times Union Center. Thousands of working New Yorkers converged on the state Capitol to March for Main Street to tell Governor David Paterson that his budget priorities should lie with Main Street, not Wall Street.
Nearly 40 Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) members under the age of 35 from around the state attended a workshop in Rennsselaerville to be a part of Next Wave; a new program designed to encourage younger activists to take an active role in building and maintaining the strength of CSEA by passing along the torch of activism to the next generation. Shannon Wade, right, from Guild for Exceptional Children, with Scott Gould from Health Research Inc. Local in Buffalo.
Nearly 40 Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) members under the age of 35 from around the state attended a workshop in Rennsselaerville to be a part of Next Wave; a new program designed to encourage younger activists to take an active role in building and maintaining the strength of CSEA by passing along the torch of activism to the next generation. Michael Nelson, right, executive secretary, Kingsboro Psychiatric Center Local with Kevin Norwood from Suffolk County Municipal Local during one of the weekend workshops.
Across New York, Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) members are reaching out to their communities to help make the holidays brighter for New Yorkers who are facing tough times. CSEA members in the CSEA Oyster Bay Local recently made the holiday season happier for disadvantaged children in their communities. Chris Baranski, left, and Joe Damico work on a bike. At right, Chris Dane, Tim Brown and Jim Ort donated their time to the cause, along with several other local members.
The Polar Plunge raises funds that directly benefits Special Olympics athletes and gives access to families that otherwise couldn't afford to send their special needs family members to Special Olympics. Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)'s Polar Plungers in Rochester during the 2007-08 season.