State Education Department Local member and political action volunteer Pat Whalen, "We need candidates like Bill Owens, who looks out for working people and is going to make sure [working families] can put food on the table, make a decent living, send their kids to college. Nationally, if we fail to re-elect President Barack Obama and we elect Mitt Romney, I don't know what kind of a future is going to be possible for working people to have."
State Dormitory Authority Local Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) member Ira Bethea, "It's really important that we have candidates who are on our side because there is a lot at stake in these elections. Public services have been attacked by corporations and by other politicians unfairly. Millions of dollars have been put into these elections to blame working families for the fact that the economy is slow when in fact, that really hasn't the case."
Long Island Developmental Center Local President Rutha Bush, who is also chair of the Civil Service Employees Association's (CSEA) PEOPLE program (CSEA and AFSCME's political action program) accompanies a quote: "CSEA has great strength in its numbers. When we are united, there is no limit to what we can accomplish.
Activists Michele Martin, Diane Burton, Dan Meenan and Don Page are part of the teams of Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) activists who recently went door-to-door visiting labor households in the Syracuse area to get out the vote for union-endorsed candidates, including Dan Maffei for Congress and Al Stirpe Jr. for state Assembly.
U.S. Rep Steve Israel of Long Island addresses delegates to the Civil Service Employees Association's (CSEA) 102nd Annual Delegates Meeting. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair urged CSEA members to get everyone they know to vote for candidates who will support working people in the upcoming election.
Civil Service Employees Association's (CSEA) union members, including Capital Region President Kathy Garrison, second from right, and State Educational Local President Sally Bywater, third from right, participate in a protest in Albany, NY outside a forum where corporate think tank head E.J. McMahon spoke. McMahon, who heads the Empire Center for New York State Policy, has advocated for pushing back public service working families' wages, benefits and pensions.
Nancy Hoffman, hired as the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)'s general counsel in 1988, retired in December 2011. Hoffman became the driving force in the legal department's development, leading it from a handful of lawyers, limited resources and no history of accomplishment to one of the most respected and effective operations in organized labor. In this photograph, Nancy Hoffman works at her desk in CSEA Headquarters.
Brian Hassett, center, from the United Way of the Greater Capital Region, accepts a donation of $8,000 from Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Statewide Treasurer Joe McMullen, right, and CSEA Capital Region 1st Vice President Mike Gifford on behalf of CSEA for flood relief in Schenectady and Schoharie counties.
Kevin Kumor of the Erie County Unit, left, John Stading of the Erie Educational Local and Assemblyman Mark Schroeder meet outside the New York Assembly's chambers during the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)/AFSCME Lobby Day 2010.