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.
The cover of the October 2011 Work Force. Front-line workers to the rescue: Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) members respond to Irene and Lee's devastation. CSEA members across the state were involved in the immediate response to Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. CSEA member Kris Waite was part of a crew of Town of Newburgh Highway Department workers who had to open up a town roadway to fix clogged pipes that were causing repeat flooding post-Hurricane Irene.
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 of Michael "Rocky" Rockdashil, a Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) unit president who serves as a lieutenant in the Baldwinsville Volunteer Fire Company, was used in the special section of the September 2011, edition of the Work Force, Always Remember: A commemorative 10th anniversary retrospective. Rockdashil forged a friendship in 1999 with fellow firefighter Michael Healey of Squad 41 in the South Bronx/Harlem area, who died in the World Trade Center collapse. In the photo he holds Healey's helmet shield. The Baldwinsville firefighters were not activated to respond but they held a fund-raiser and raised $20,000 for the families of the fallen firefighters.
A photo of Michael Browne, a Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Nassau County Local member, used in the special section of the September 2011 edition of The Work Force. Always Remember: A commemorative 10th anniversary retrospective. Browne, who works for the Department of Public Works as a sewer maintenance worker and is also a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician for the Rockville Centre Volunteer Fire Department, was sent to lower Manhattan with other members of the fire department to support the search and rescue operations being undertaken by city firefighters at the station closest to Ground Zero.
A photo of John Damato, a Nassau County Local member, used in the special section of the September 2011 edition of The Work Force, Always Remember: A commemorative 10th anniversary retrospective published by the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA). Damato, who works for the Department of Public Works as a sewer maintenance worker and is also a volunteer firefighter and member of the National Guard, was deployed in the days following the September 11, 2001, attacks on a six-month Guard tour during which he alternately sifted through piles of rubble at Ground Zero searching for human remains and guarded security check points at the World Trade Center site.
A photo of Jennifer Graley, a social worker and Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Chautauqua County Unit member, used in the special section of the September 2011 edition of The Work Force, Always Remember: A commemorative 10th anniversary retrospective. Graley traveled to New York City following the attacks, acting on a strong feeling that she needed to be in that place, at that time, doing whatever she could for those most in need.
A photo of Frank Cosentino, a senior mail and supply clerk for state Liquor Authority, used in the special section of the September 2011 Work Force, Always Remember: A commemorative 10th anniversary retrospective. The horror of witnessing victims leaping from windows brought Consentino into the forefront of safety and health issues affecting working people. He is currently the statewide chair of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Occupational Safety and Health Committee, serves as the Metropolitan Region health and safety chair and also chairs the State Labor/Management Safety and Health Committee.
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.