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) 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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
AFSCME Council 95 members show their union pride. AFSCME workers in Puerto Rico had collective bargaining rights ripped away (in 2009) by a reactionary governor similar to what workers in Wisconsin and Ohio faced. The Council 95 members were able to get the laws overturned.
Youth Developmental Aides William Ponder, Erika Watson, and Anthony Hinton stand near the basketball court where they spent many hours playing and working with youths at state Office of Children and Family Services Bronx Residential facility.
The Civil Service Employees Association's (CSEA) Metropolitan Region President Lester Crockett addresses the crowd at a rally to save SUNY Downstate Medical Center and maintain the essential health services it delivers.
SUNY Downstate Local activist Mary Harmon and Local President Althea Green rally to keep SUNY Downstate open during a rally at Albany's Legislative Office Building.
SUNY Downstate Local members lobby state legislators in their Albany offices regarding the restructuring that threatens the SUNY Downstate Medical Center.
Bayview Correctional Facility, New York state's last remaining women's prison south of the Tappan Zee Bridge, located next to high-priced condominiums and apartments in the Chelsea, NY neighborhood, will soon close as part of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's budget proposal.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Metropolitan Region President Lester Crockett testifies before the New York state Assembly Health Committee that the economic benefits of SUNY Downstate MEdical Center to Brooklyn, NY and surrounding areas far outweigh the savings that would result from privatization of the hospital.
From left, the Civil Service Employees Association's (CSEA) Metropolitan Political Action Coordinator Matthew D'Amico and Lottery Marketing Representative John Montelbano meet with State Assemblyman Micah Z. Kellner, far right, and his staff about privatizing and other issues at the New York State Lottery.
Members of the Youth Arts Group perform street theater at the Union Square Green Market to draw attention to the plight of farmworkers amidst a seven day tour throughout New York state.
The Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) joins a broad coalition of faith, labor and community leaders to call on New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to save vital health care services for the people and communities of Central Brooklyn at SUNY Downstate Medical Hospital as Rev. Al Sharpton addresses the crowd.
Metropolitan Region President Lester Crocket, left, and SUNY Downstate Medical Center Local President Althea Green-Pruitt take part in a demonstration demanding that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo keep the teaching hospital open.
Metropolitan Region office assistant Moses Merisier and office manager Jessie McQueen, who have relatives in Haiti, help organize food, clothing and other supplies that Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) members donated to earthquake victims in Haiti. McQueen lost a cousin and his two young children in the collapse of Port-au-Prince's Hotel Montana. Merisier's family was spared fatalities, but they lost their homes and livelihoods. After the devastating earthquake, Merisier and McQueen organized the donation drive. They are also helping coordinate a March 27 fund-raiser to benefit local humanitarian organizations, along with the region's Women's and Education committees, other unions and community groups.