The Public Sector, 1982 September 10

Official Publication of The Civil Vol, 4, No. 24

Service Employees Association i
Lucdl 100R: Auer cae Friday, September 10, 1982

Federation of State, County and

Municipal Employees AFL-CIO

SSECTOR ~—

(ISSN 0164 9949)

Buffalo set

to host Transfers to start —

soon at Central Islip

72nd Annual Meeting | Ree

BUFFALO — With a new location and new
dates, preparations are moving along on
schedule for CSEA’s 72nd Annual Delegate
Meeting next month.

The important annual convention is now
scheduled for October 10-15 at the Buffalo
Convention Center.

The annual delegate session originally was set
for a week later in Niagara Falls, but CSEA last
month abruptly cancelled the Niagara Falls
session in response to terms of a one-year
contract imposed on nearly 900 Niagara County
CSEA members by the Niagara County
Legislature in August. CSEA President William
L. McGowan cancelled the Niagara Falls
meeting with the terse statement, “There is no
way that we can take our convention and its
financial benefits to a county that has walked
over the rights of CSEA members and made a
mockery of the Taylor Law.” The imposed
contract granted only a token wage increase

while stripping away several benefits. jati i ion:
The union’s Board of Directors, at the request negotiations and legislation

of Western Region President Robert L. A . »
Lattimer, had previously granted McGowan helped provide job security

authority to cancel the original convention plans
eee upon the outcome of the legislative in the face ni a declining
Some 1,500 CSEA delegates are expected to t
participate in the October 10-15 meeting in
Buffalo. All necessary delegate forms have been
mailed out, with a reminder that ae
reservations must be made no later than |
October 1. That and other arrangements may ».. S€@ page 17
be made through the delegate’s local president.
Among the issues to be considered by the
delegates will be final passage of a proposed
amendment to the union’s constitution which
would enable CSEA to organize; under certain
conditions, private sector workers. Details of
that and other issues to be considered will be
published prior to the annual meeting.

WELFARE ,
WORK FAAS |

)

SOLIDARITY
DAY |
September 19, 1981

One year ago, more than
6,000 CSEA members
marched with 500,000
Americans in Washington @
to protest against the
Reagan Administration
and the erosion of social
progress that unions
fought for a century to
achieve.

SOLIDARITY

DAY Il
November 2, 1982

| Tens of thousands of CSEA members will
| join millions of Americans in going to the
polls on election day in response to a call
by the AFL-CIO for organized labor to
vote against Reaganomics and those can-
\ didates who embrace the Reagan policies.

MEANWHILE ... oe
CSEA members can demonstrate more solidari ty

by voting for MARIO CUOMO for governor in the
Democratic primary election on September 23.

CSEA ‘
Staff Openings

NEW YORK — CSEA is seeking an Employee Assistance
Representative for Metropolitan Region II. The staff member will be
responsible for developing and maintaining EAP programs within the
Region designed to assist employees with problems such as alcohol or
drug abuse.

EAP Representatives work with Local leaders in establishing EAP @
programs, help develop educational programs, and maintain up-to-date
listings of treatment resources to which troubled employees can be
referred.

Applicants must have a high school diploma or equivalency
certificate plus three years of satisfactory, responsible union experience
involving extensive public contact with government and union personnel.

Applicants can also qualify if they have graduated from a college or
university or a recognized school of labor relations, or have a satisfactory
equivalent combination of education and experience.

In addition, candidates must be in sound health and must possess a
driver’s license and a car for business use. 6
Resumes should be submitted by Sept. 27 to CSEA’s Personnel

Cakes 33 Elk Street, Albany, NY 12224.

Local 807 reaches accord

METROPOLITAN REGION Il President George Caloumeno, left, swears in SILVER CREEK — The Village of year. All employees will receive an in-
Everton Philips as New York City Local 010’s third vice president. Philips Silver Creek Unit of CSEA Chautau- crease of 35 cents per hour.
was elected third vice president after the resignation of First Vice President qua County Local 807 has reached

Nancy Gonzales-Unger, who left state service. Moving up in the ranks were agreement with the village on a three- Wage re-opener clauses in the se@
Rose Fuererman-Sutre to first vice president and Jim Heekin to second vice year contract that provides a median ond and third year will determine

president. iets gain of 7 percent in wages in the first future raises.
-FHE-PUBHE-SECTOR; -Friday;-September 10;-982:------- =
3 907542 5118

(-

TOY nadmatga?

and Lola Riberdy. Standing is Peggy Craft.

———Empire State College starts Employee Assistance Program ——

THE EAP COMMITTEE of Empire State College Local 641 looks over the agenda of a recent one-
day orientation program for the college’s employees. From left to right are Mary Williams, Local
641 secretary; Karen Bing, EAP Committee chairwoman; Judy Remington, Local 641 president;

Corrections
workshop |
scheduled

ALBANY — CSEA Corrections Department local
presidents and grievance chairpersons will be
joining correctional facility superintendents and
other managers at a joint labor-management
workshop Sept. 21-22 at the Friar Tuck Inn in the
northern Catskills.

The workshop is expected to attract some 125
managers and CSEA leaders representing
Department of Correctional Services facilities
statewide. Sessions, taught by the New York State
School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell
University, will begin at 1:30 p.m., Sept. 21 and
conclude at 4 p.m. the following day.

Discussion topics will include: purposes,
principles and limits of collective bargaining;
handling grievances; making use of labor-
management meetings; proper use of employee
counseling; and changes in handling time and
attendance problems.

All instructional costs of the workshop are being
borne by.CWEP, the joint CSEA-state Committee
on the Work Environment and Productivity. Travel
and lodging costs will be covered by the
Department of Correctional Services.

Women organizing at record rate

WASHINGTON — From the earliest days of
American history, women have worked for wages
— and have organized to improve those wages and
working conditions. Women workers today are
faced with job insecurity, low wages, unfair
treatment, lack of respect for the work they do, and
two jobs — for pay and in the home. As a result,
they are joining unions at the fastest rate ever
recorded.

“It’s been proven that women in unions do better,
pay-wise and benefit-wise, then women who are not
in unions,” says CSEA Statewide Secretary Irene
Carr, a long-time activist in women’s issues.

“We have so many women in CSEA who are
board members and local presidents, who are on
the negotiating committees and labor management
committees. They have an opportunity within the
union that they don’t have in other places to speak
out for themselves and their sisters, and to better
themselves.”

Between 1976 and 1978, more than 600,000 women.
joined unions, a tremendous jump from the 48,000
new women members in the 1974-76 period. Two
million women have become union members since
1960, six of every 10 new unionists.

Lillian Moss, coordinator of the Women’s
Organizing Campaign launched in June, notes,
“Women realize they need a union, want a union,
and want to know how to organize one. They’re so
glad there’s someone to come to.”

Sponsored by the AFL-CIO Industrial Union
Department and the Coalition of Labor Union

Women, the Women’s Organizing Campaign is
aimed at women workers in the Balti-
more/Washington, D.C. area. Six unions have
assigned staff to the campaign, and two interns,
members of the D.C. CLUW chapter, have been
hired. Organizing targets include banks, hospitals,
insurance companies, food service and industrial
operations.

These targets reflect the occupations in which
working women are concentrated: 35 percent are
clerical workers (12 percent organized); 19 percent
are service workers, primarily in health and food
services (10 percent organized); 17 percent are
professional and technical workers (27 percent
organized); and 10 percent are semi-skilled factory
workers (31 percent organized).

The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that,
except for factory workers, in the 1980s these
occupations will continue to be among the fastest
growing. Demand will be especially great for
workers in the health care industry, for food service
workers, and for clerical workers in the private
sector, in finance, insurance, retail trades, and
legal services.

While nearly 7 million women are organized,
accounting for one of every four organized workers,
they represent only 16 percent of all working
women. Even discounting those jobs exempt from
union coverage, the organizing potential is great. In
fact, one quarter of the entire American workforce
is made up of white collar women.

Many white collar women, however, have an

image of the labor movement not only as blue
collar, but as anti-female. Some unions are helping
to change that image as they increase their efforts
to organize white collar industries. Much of the
change has been due to the increasing numbers and
visibility of women unionists.

Local female members and officers and
headquarters staffers are pressing their unions to
address the problems of wages, benefits and
working conditions facing women workers. They
are also calling for more women to be hired on
staff. A 1980 study by the AFL-CIO Department for
Professional Employees found that the unions
which have been most successful in organizing
women technicians and professionals — teachers,
public employees, health care workers — have the
highest percentage of women organizers and union
representatives on their staffs.

Women workers can anticipate working 28 years,
compared to 36 years for men. They want
recognition for the work they do — a fair wage and
respect for their contributions.

Women are being told they can solve their job
problems by dressing for success, setting up ‘old
girl networks” and pulling themselves up by the
straps of their high heels. But women across the
country, in nursing homes, department stores,
hospitals, offices, restaurants and factories, aren’t
buying it, They know their problems can’t be solved
by what they wear on the job. They want to find
solutions, and they’re looking for help. Many unions
are providing the answers.

Westchester
County drops
disciplinary
charges against

: employee

WHITE PLAINS - A hearing officer has dismissed
charges against a Westchester County Department of
Public Safety employee who had been accused of not
adequately fulfilling his supervisory responsibilities.

Hearing Officer James Caruso recommended the
motion for dismissal of the disciplinary charges against
Lt. George R. Donnelly after the county presented its
case. Donnelly was represented by CSEA Regional
Attorney Arthur H. Grae.

“T fail to find by any rational process that the county

as party has met its burden of proof,” noted

it now means there is no basis for similar charges

witnesses, said the case was based on “‘inferences,”’ and
thought it significant that no members of the police force
were called in support of any of the charges.

The hearing officer also found there was some
confusion about rules and regulations because the
department was a new creation resulting from the recent
merger of the sheriffs department with the parkway
police. He recommended that Commissioner/Sheriff
Daniel Guido drop the charges, and Guido did. 3

The case, which was handled through CSEA’s Legal
Assistance Program, was especially significant because
by a former commissioner/sheriff against three other

Publi
SECTOR

Official publication of

The Civil Service Employees Association:
Local 1000, AFSCME, AFL-CIO

33 Elk Street, Albany, New York 12224

The Public Sector (445010) is published every other
Friday for $5 by the Civil Service Employees
Association, 33 Elk Street, Albany, New York 12224.

Second Class Postage paid at Post Office, Albany,
New York.

Send address changes to The Public Sector, 33 Elk

ARE You A

REGISTERED
LITTLE GUY VOTER?
VOTE CUOMO.

Street, Albany, New York 12224.
York 12207. Single copy price 25¢.

Gary G. Fryer—Publisher
Roger A! Cole—Editor

12224 (518) 434-0191.

THOMAS WHITNEY

Whitney named
new head of
Vermont union

ALBANY — Thomas Whitney,
CSEA’s administrative director of
Member Services, has been named
executive director of the
6,000-member Vermont State
Employees Association.

He will assume the state employee
union’s top staff position Oct. 1.

Whitney joined CSEA in 1970 as a
field representative, negotiating and
administering local government
‘contracts. He served for six years as
Director of Employee Relations and
Personnel before being named to his
current Member Services position
three years ago.

“I leave CSEA grateful for the
experience I’ve had here, and I carry
with me to Vermont the many things
I’ve learned here about public
employee labor relations,” Whitney
said. “I look forward to the challenge
of serving as executive director of a
similar, but smaller organization in
Vermont.”

Publication office, 1 Columbia Place, Albany, New

Tina Lincer First—Associate Editor
Gwenn M. Bellcourt—Assistant Editor

Published every other Friday by Civil Service
Employees Association, 33 Elk Street, Albany, N.Y.

=

Labor Day 1982:
economic woes

WASHINGTON — As Labor Day rolled around this
week, many people found it difficult to find much to
celebrate. For working people, the poor, the elderly,
small business people and farmers, the policies of the
Reagan administration have turned their economic
situations into disasters.

With its term nearly half over, the administration is in
disarray over economic policy and the nation faces the
prospect of worse times ahead.

During the 1980 Campaign, President Reagan
promised ‘‘Jobs, jobs, jobs.” He said this would be
achieved by unleashing private enterprise through
generous ‘‘supply-side’’ tax cuts and through
“deregulation.”

Although Reagan was favored by a scant 51 percent of
those who voted — and only 26 percent of the eligible
voters in the lowest turnout since 1948 — he claimed a
popular mandate not only for his supply-side tax cuts but
for a program of drastic social spending cutbacks.

Reagan’s pledge to “get government off our backs”
turned out to be a policy of weakening or gutting
workplace health and safety regulations, laws protecting
the consumer and the environment and, more recently,
child labor protections.

The administration steamrollered its tax and budget
“program for economic recovery” through Congress last
year by reviving the old coalition of Republicans and
conservative Democrats.

In less than a year, the ‘‘Reagan revolution,” or rather
counter-revolution, had begun the most massive transfer
of income in our history from poor, near-poor and
middle-income Americans to the affluent and corporate
rich.

Instead of the promised prosperity, the economy slid
into its eighth postwar recession and, following the 1980
downturn, the first back-to-back recession since 1919.

The Reagan Recession became the worst since the
Great Depression of the 1930s in terms of unemployment,
business bankruptcies and farm foreclosures.

During past recessions, interest rates have fallen
sharply. But in this recession, having been engineered by
the Fed’s Reagan-backed tight money policy, real
interest rates — that is, interest rates minus inflation —
are the highest in a half-century.

Faint signs of recovery are being threatened by the
continuing high cost of money. The high rates also have
resulted from widening federal deficits caused by the
Reagan tax giveaways to the rich and huge hikes in
military spending.

The predictable result has been a budget crunch in
which working people and the poor were enlisted to make

Page

THE PUBLIC SECTOR, Friday, September 10.1982
ee  —aEEOEOEOEOOOeEeeeeeeeeeeeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeeEeEeEeEeEeEeeeEeeEeEeEeEeEeEEEEeEeeee

For many people,

eclipsed celebration

the sacrifices on the altar of a balanced budget.

No sooner had the White House drawn up the first
budget in U.S. history with a deficit exceeding $100
billion, than it pronounced support for a Constitutional
Amendment to balance the budget.

Critics called the proposed amendment a cynical move
and a fig leaf to hide big deficits from voters and divert
attention from the real problems afflicting the economy.
Should it succeed, it will become a Trojan Horse for
further cutbacks in programs like Social Security, a
program which an indignant public so far has kept
mostly intact from the Reagan-Stockman meat-ax.

Program cuts have come at a time when more, not
less, federal action is needed to help the ‘growing number
of victims of the Reagan Recession and to help the
economy get on its feet.

During 1981, Reagan’s first year in office, some 2.2
million more Americans slipped into poverty, an
increase of 7.4 percent, according to the Census Bureau.

Since July 1981, when the recession began, 2.5 million
Americans have been tossed into the ranks of the
unemployed. Some 1.5 million have abandoned the
search for work. Many others have been forced into only
part-time employment. The term “new poor” has
entered the language.

Meanwhile, more than 2 million jobless workers have
seen their unemployment compensation benefits run out,
and 3 million more face the loss of beneifts in 1983 largely
because of cutbacks and restrictions pushed through
Congress by the administration.

Since Reagan took office, more than a million people,
mostly the “working poor,” have been cut off from the
food stamp program and many more are targeted for
elimination. Nearly 150,000 poor working families are
losing their eligibility for government-supported day
care.

Those hurt the most have been the poor, women, the
very young and the elderly. For instance, 661,000
children have lost Medicaid coverage; 900,000 poor and
near-poor youngsters no longer receive free or reduced-
price school lunches.

Organized labor has been in the forefront of opposition
to the Reagan program. On Sept. 19, 1981, Solidarity Day,
nearly a half-million working people and their allies
demonstrated in Washington against Reaganomics.

Now, a year later, labor and its allies are demanding
that Congress reverse what AFL-CIO President Lane
Kirkland called policies that ‘add up to class warfare
against the disadvantaged, against the poor, against the
working people of America.”

a

THOMAS QUIMBY, CSEA Director of Educa-
tion and Training, calls the program “unique
among unions in New York and one of only a few
programs of its kinds in the United States.”

«Labor Institute

‘One of only a few programs of its kind in the U.S.’

ALBANY — The schedule of Fall courses for
the CSEA Labor Institute is now being set up.
Information on when courses will be taught in
your area should be available through your
Local President or the CSEA Regional Office.

The CSEA Labor Institute is a series of
seminars offered by the union’s Department of
Edueation and Training. Seminars are
specifically designed to educate officers,
stewads and members in all aspects of unionism.

The Institute consists of three levels:
Principles of Unionism, Applied Principles of
Unionism, and Advanced Union Studies.
Certificates of Achievement are awarded upon
successful completion of each level.

Level 1 seminars include such topics as the
American labor movement, basic steward
training, internal organizing, officer training,
political action, Occupational Safety and Health,
basic negotiations and the Employee Assistance

The most popular course in the series is the
Basic Steward Seminar, which requires about
six hours to complete. The steward training is
cnn offered upon request at the Local or Unit
level.

All of the Institute courses are offered
evenings and weekends for the convenience of
members.

“The Institute is designed to help CSEA
stewards and officers become more effective.
Seminars are designed to enable members to
grow individually and, in the process, help their
union become stronger,’ commented Thomas
Quimby, CSEA Director of Education and
Training.

“The program is unique among unions in New
York and one of only a few programs of its kind
in the United States.”

He added that Units and Locals can request
Institute seminars through their Regional

Program.

President and/or Regional Education
Committee.

« CSEA/P alternative

‘For the conscientious worker who is serious about getting ahead’

Ww

ie

LP

ALBANY — CSEA and the state are once again sponsoring employee advancement
training courses in a continuing effort to afford promotional opportunities to the state’s
clerical and entry-level workers.

Now in its fourth year, the Clerical and Secretarial Employees Advancement
Program (CSEA/P,) has grown from a conceptual benefit at the 1979 bargaining table
to a full-scale career opportunities program.

fo date, approximately 200 transitional employees in the state’s Administrative
Bargaining Unit have moved up and out of the ‘clerical ghetto’ and into professional
positions which once required a college degree, says CSEA Collective Bargaining
Specialist Jack Conoby, who negotiated and has subsequently monitored the
labor/management program.

In the past four years, Conoby said that an additional 300 clerical employees have
transitioned to various administrative aide and departmental promotional positions
through one of the five remaining CSEA/P series.

“We're very proud of CSEA/P and we’re finally beginning to see the results of this
program. Of course, it takes a great deal of hard work on the part of the employee,”
Conoby noted, adding that, ‘‘these courses are geared for the conscientious worker who
is serious about getting ahead.”

Beginning this month, a total of 24 courses will be offered in Albany, Buffalo and
New York City. The Employee Advancement Section of the State’s Department of Civil

Service is hosting the training series for pre-registered transitional

employees.

Courses range from a one-day class on “Decision-making” to a two-

day session on “Planning and Conducting Meetings” to a three-time,

once-a-week series on ‘“‘Assertiveness.””

The courses are funded through the CSEA/P contract with the state,

Conoby explained. Applicants are required to take a transitional competitive
promotional examination administered by the Dept. of Civil Service.

“This is the perfect opportunity for our members to enhance their work skills,”
Conoby said, ‘‘and at the same time, work their way up the career ladder.”’

Conoby added that management also benefits from the program. Employee
morale and productivity are bolstered because otherwise dead-ended, entry-level
workers see a ‘way out’ of their predicament, he said.

“Again, we're proud to have negotiated such an innovative program,” Conoby
said. ‘‘My only hope is that our members use this tool to carve out a more prosperous
future.”

Any clerical worker in the state’s Administrative Services Unit who is interested in
advancement through the CSEA/P should check their agency bulletin boards for a

"posting or call CSEA headquarters for more information.

THE PUBLIC SECTOR, Friday, Septermber 10, 1982 Page 5

Communications

ALBANY — A CSEA staff clerk,
a Suffolk County employee and a
Long Island homemaker recently
were involved in a chain of events
that shows the Good Samaritan ex-
ists, that the telephone is indeed
the next best thing to being there,
and that ‘InfoLine” works.

The three found themselves con-
nected through InfoLine, the CSEA
toll-free telephone resource which
helps CSEA-represented
employees throughout the state get
in touch with available union
resources.

The homemaker used the service
resourcefully, calling one noontime
to say she had found a wallet. The
only identification in it was a CSEA
membership card containing a
man’s name — John C. Murray —
his Social Security number and the
InfoLine number. After looking up
the man’s home telephone number
and finding it disconnected, the
woman called InfoLine.

It was answered that day by An-
tic Womack, a staff clerk at the
union’s headquarters in Albany.
Womack plugged the Social Securi-
ty number into a computer, found
out Murray worked for Suffolk
County and promptly called the
Suffolk County payroll office,
which put her in touch with him.
After a series of phone calls, John
Murray was reunited with his
wallet in just a few days.

“T was in the process of moving,
and it had apparently fallen off the
back of a truck,” explained Mur-
ray, a planner in the Suffolk County
Planning Department Transporta-
tion Division. Added he: ‘We plan-
ners are always losing things.”

Murray says he is happy to be
getting his wallet back — ‘with the
money inside. It wasn’t a large
amount — $21 — but there were a
lot of credit cards. Getting it back

AFSCME film

on political action

now available to
CSEA members

Page 6.

HELP WANTED — CSEA staff members Antic Womack, seated, Carmella
Fiorino, left, and Sharon Brown are some of the employees at union

headquarters who answer the InfoLine.

whom didn’t know where to turn
for help when they needed it. The
service makes it easier for
members to put the union to work
for them by providing one central
source for information.

“We get all sorts of stories,” says
Womack, noting that people call
about everything from address
changes, employee benefits and
grievances to problems with fami-
ly, co-workers or management.

Manning the line is, she says,
“very interesting and in a way,
challenging, because you’re con-
stantly thinking, ‘How can I help
this person?’ Some of these people
are very distraught when they call
and it’s hard to figure out what
their problem is. You have to use
your discretion or ingenuity or
whatever to comfort them and
calm their fears and anxieties, and
let them know you're concerned.”

The number for InfoLine,
1-800-342-2027, appears on new
union membership cards sent out
since early spring 1981. In an effort
to use the framework of the union,
callers are frequently given the
telephone number of their local
president, unit president or shop
steward as an initial resource.
Calls dealing with such specifics as
safety matters, the Employee
Benefit Fund and the Employee
Assistance Program are referred
directly to those offices.

is a relief, and shows some people
are still honest.”

For Womack, 12 years a CSEA
staff member, the out-of-the-
ordinary phone call and her subse-
quent efforts to track down the
man with the missing wallet were
all in a day’s work. “I just figured
it was part of my job,”’ she said. “I
think it was very kind of the woman

to call. A lot of people wouldn’t
even‘care.”’

Womack is one of nine staffers in
union headquarters who regularly
answers InfoLine, which was ini-
tiated in early 1981 by CSEA Presi-
dent William L. McGowan in an ef-
fort to improve communications
with the rank and file, many of

InfoLine operates during normal
business hours, from 8:30 a.m. to 5
p.m. Members should note,
however, that since the service was
set up strictly as a referral system,
and not for internal union business,
calls made to InfoLine cannot be
transferred to other telephone
numbers or extensions within
CSEA.

ALBANY — “‘AFSCME Fights Back”’ was the theme
of this year’s 25th biennial convention of the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,
and it is also the title of a new AFSCME film depicting
growing activism among public employees in the face of
Reaganomics.

The film was first shown to International delegates
attending this year’s Atlantic City Convention of the
AFL-CIO’s largest public employee union. Now the in-
spiring account of the personal impact of national
economic policies on the lives of public workers and the

THE PUBLIC SECTOR, | Friday, September 10, 1982

people they serve is available through CSEA’s regional
offices,

“Reaganomics has become a commonly used term
to describe an economic ideology, but it’s becoming too
easy to forget that there are human consequences to this
policy. This brief film graphically demonstrates those
consequences for all to see. It in inspiring demonstra-
tion of the need for political action,” said CSEA Presi-
dent William L, McGowan.

Copies of the film can be obtained for use by contact-
ing the communications associate in your CSEA
regional office.

,

Coalition

“for Black Trade Unionists

holds 11th annual convention

REPRESENTING CSEA IN MEMPHIS, at the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists convention, was

CSEA Local 602 Vice President Doris W. Williams

ba Bs.

, second from left. Ms. Williams was among some

700 delegates from throughout the nation representing black workers in the labor movement.

BUFFALO — Doris W. Williams, a vice
president of SUNY Buffalo Local 602,
represented CSEA at the 11th annual convention
of the Coalition for Black Trade Unionists.

Held in Memphis, Tefinessee, the convention
attracted 700 delegates from throughout the
nation, representing the more:than 3.3 million
black workers who are represented by labor
unions. The Coalition is headed by President
William Lucy, Secretary-Treasurer of AF

SSEA

Expressing the hope that more
members would become active in the Coalition,
Ms. Williams commented, “This would reinforce

and give us a better understanding of the world
situation and the issues for which both
organizations are now fighting.”

The convention agenda included workshops on
political action, black women and the labor
movement, organizing, and the problem of black
workers in South Africa and the Caribbean.
Guest speakers included Congressman John
Conyers of Michigan, the Secretary-General of
the Organization of African Trade Union Unity,
and the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson of Operation
PUSH.

School finance decision may jeopardize jobs

ALBANY — A legal challenge to the present system
of financing schools was struck down by the Court of
Appeals, which may mean tighter school budgets and
the loss of jobs for CSEA members.

The state’s highest court recently decided that the
present system for state financing of school systems
did not violate any federal or state laws, and should
stand.

The system, in which each district pays for its own
education system through a combination of locally-
raised revenues and state aid, was legally challenged
in 1974 because of the gross disparity of those revenues.
Some school districts with smaller property tax bases

and thus able to afford smaller expenditures per pupil
than districts where real property assessment values
are high, claimed that state aid formulas should be
revised to channel more aid to the “property-poor”

The court’s decision means that in the property-poor
districts several programs where CSEA members
work — such as the school lunch, transportation and
maintenance areas — may be affected by cuts.

“There’s a higher risk for members in property-poor
districts, especially because that’s where more school
budgets are defeated by voters,” said Larry Scanlon,
CSEA school district coordinator.

The smaller property-poor districts will not be the
only ones affected by the recent court decision. Those
districts in larger cities facing “municipal over-
burden” had also joined the legal challenge. They
pointed to fewer funds left over in their budgets for
education after the costly expenses of running their
cities are covered.

Now that the courts have refused to change the fund-
ing system for education, any future changes will
have to be made by the Legislature.

“The court’s ruling was a clear call for legislative
and political action by CSEA school district activists in
order to remedy these serious funding problems,”
noted Scanlon.

VoTe FOR
MARIO
CUOMO

THE PUBLIC SECTOR, Friday, September 10,1982, Page 7..

implementing state contrac

ts

7

William L. McGowan.

agreements.”

JOINT LABOR/MANAGEMENT
COMMITTEE ON EMPLOYEE
DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING

The committee reviews educational,
development and training programs and
makes recommendations for program
changes. They may also address the method
of selection of program participants, and they
make recommendations concerning the
allocation of program funds. First-year fund-
ing for all three units for such educational
and training programs totals $2.9 million.

Serving on the committee are Loretta
Rodwell, John Weidman and William Fet-
terling, with Thomas Quimby as CSEA staff
advisor.

JOINT EAP LABOR/MANAGEMENT
COMMITTEE

Funds are appropriated to develop a per-
manent Employee Assistance Program and
are used for staffing, training and local EAP
program incidentals. Decisions on how the
money will be spent are the responsibility of
the labor/management committee, in-
cluding CSEA designees Lee Johnson,
Elizabeth Watts, Louis gilmore and James
Murphy, with Thomas Whitney as_ staff
advisor.

STATEWIDE SAFETY AND HEALTH
MAINTENANCE COMMITTEE

The contracts’ provide funding of
$300,000 a year for the work of this commit-
tee, which includes assessing department
and agency safety practices and developing
plans for changes or improvements in
safety and working conditions. The commit-
tee will also review grievances and com-
plaints relating to safety, review procedures
for investigation of on-the-job deaths or
serious injuries, and identify safety training
needs.

Serving on the committee in behalf of
CSEA are Louis Mannellino, Phyllis
Ferguson, Robert Thompson, C. Allen
Mead, Sue Bucrzinski and Frank Falejezyk,
with Nels Carlson as staff advisor.

~

ALBANY — CSEA’s repesentatives on joint labor/management committees provided
for under the ASU, ISU and OSU contracts with the State have been named by President

“Studies, recommendations and policies developed by these committees can have im-
portant impact on our members,” McGowan noted. “In some cases, these committees ad-
minister large sums of money negotiated under the contracts and oversee programs that
can greatly enhance the working lives of State employees.

“These committee members will have important jobs ahead of them implementing
many of the articles our negotiating teams worked to include in the collective bargaining

The committees, their roles, and the CSEA appointments are as follows:

STATEWIDE LABOR/MANAGEMENT DAY
CARE ADVISORY COMMITTEE

The committee recommends standards for
establishing and funding on-site day care
centers. CSEA's representatives on the com-
mittee are Addie Kelley, Debbie Powers, Ora
Aney, Thomas Byrne and Jay Helfgott, with
Paula Lambert as staff advisor.

JOINT COMMITTEE ON HEALTH
BENEBRITS 6

This committee is primarily responsible
for examining existing health insurance
benefit levels, experience, utilization and
costs in order to recommend adjustments or
modifications to offset inflationary in-
creases to both employees and the State.
Serving with staff advisor Timothy Mullens
are John Carey and Judy Salisbury.

JOINT COMMITTEE TO STUDY WORK
ALTERNATIVES

The committee will study the scope of
employment of workers on a fee-for-service
basis in state departments and agencies. To
reduce such employment, they will consider
alternative staff deployment, more ap-
propriate use of overtime, and the feasibility
of establishing a joint job referral service to
meet temporary needs of departments, and
agencies. The contracts call for the commit-
tee’s recommendations to be made to the
Governor's Office of Employee Relations
and the President of CSEA by Oct. 1.
Representing CSEA on the committee are
staff advisor Nels Carlson, William Blom
and Joseph Kowalski.

JOINT. STATE/CSEA LAYOFF UNITS
COMMITTEE

The committee makes recommendations
concerning the composition of layoff units
within state departments and agencies and
also on layoff procedure provisions of the
Civil Srvice Law, Rules and Regulations. Ap-
pointed to serve on this committee in behalf
of CSEA are staff advisor William Blom,
Bruce Wyngaard, Francis Wilusz, Milo
Barlow and Thomas Crary.

concerned with the method of selection of

ining programs.

"trainees, S : :

‘CSEA’s members of the committee are
staff advisor Nels Carlson, William Blom,
Milo Barlow, Chuck Schampier and John
Wallenbeck.
STATEWIDE LABOR/MANAGEMENT -

SUBCOMMITTEE ON WORKING

CONDITIONS (ISG)

Funding is provided under the Institu-
tional Services Unit contract for a commit:
tee to consider issues relating to internal
and external environmental working condi-
tions, The committee will review such issues
as the need for ventilators, heaters, fans or
similar devices. Serving in CSEA’s behalf
will be Alexander Hogg and John Weidman,
with James Cooney as staff advisor.

4

Page 8

THE PUBLIC SECTOR, Friday’ September 10, 1982

Vote for Mario Cuomo in the September 23 Democratic Primary.

See ee tetas |

Give your support when CSEA political activists call on
you to help. Find out more about the election and tell your
friends. And you can help by reaching into your pocket.
It's not going to be easy to fight off the Koch mega-bucks
campaign, but if everyone gives something, we can defeat
the opposition and send Mario Cuomo to the Governor's
Office.

New York public employees will be able to breathe a lot
easier with an experienced, compassionate man in the

chief executive's office.
We need Mario Cuomo. Now.

CSEC

Civil Service Employees Association
LOCAL 1000, AFSCME, AFL-CIO

ALBANY — Hundreds of CSEA members throughout the
state have volunteered their time and talents to help
Mario Cuomo win the Democratic primary election for
governor. You can also.

“Of course, the biggest help is the vote in the Sept. 23
primary of every member who's a registered Democrat,”
notes political action training specialist Ramona
Gallagher. “A good primary day turn-out of our members
to vote for Cuomo is crucial.”

“But beyond that, there are lots of jobs that need to be
done in the campaign as the pace gets more hectic
between now and Sept. 23. There are many things that
members can do to help. You can talk up the election with
your friends, neighbors and co-workers and urge them to
vote. Or you can make a date to spend an evening ina
phone bank making calls to get out the vote.

“All it takes is a phone call,” Ms. Gallagher explained.
“Just say you want to volunteer to help in the campaign,
and we'll put you to work, I think you'll even find that
being a campaign volunteer can be a lot of fun.”’

Coordinating CSEA's internal program to put union
volunteers into the campaign are Ms. Gallagher and
Statewide Political Action Committee Chairman Joe
Conway. Information on how you can help is also
available from your regional political action chairperson.

Send to: Friends of Mario Cuomo
P.O. Box 7285 Capitol Station
Albany, New York 12224

Yes, | want to help Mario Cuomo.

Contact me to work on the Campaign.
Name —__
Address

Use my check for the Campaign
Enclosed is $

Make checks payable to:
* aaansFriends of Mario Cuom0 see eee

WHO TO CALL TO. VOLONTEER:

Ramona Gallagher, political action training specialist
Pike ya ef vekeyrolMlsle Suh Cag io oti Bie a, ose (716) 634-3540

Joe Conway, state PAC chairman.... (518) 436-8622
REGIONAL PAC CHAIRPERSONS
Region I, Mike Curtin Region V, Kathy

(516) 273-2280 (Iv Collins
message) (315) 422-4303 (after

Region II, Bob Nurse 5 p.m.)

(212) 735-1400 (11 Region VI, Dominic

a.m.-1 p.m.) 4 Savarino

Region III, C. Scott Fe y (716) 634-3540
©)

Daniels or
(914) 485-9768 Flo Tripi

Region IV, John _ (716) 328-5250
Francisco (afternoons)
(518) 489-5425 /

THE PUBLIC SECTOR, Friday, September 10. 1982 Page 9

Page 10

LT. GOV.

CUOMO

FOR GOVERNOR

Public employees for Mario Cuomo

The choice between the two rivals for the Democratic nomina-
tion for Governor of New York State is, indeed, abundantly
clear. Lt. Gov. Mario Cuomo, the CSEA-endorsed candidate,
and New York City Mayor Ed Koch have startingly opposite
views on a wide range of issues of tremendous importance to
New Yorkers in general and public employees in particular.
Following are the publicly-stated positions of Cuomo and Koch
on a'selected number of key campaign issues.

Extend federal occupational
safety protection to public

employees

SS

Lower than minimum wage
salaries for young workers in
certain jobs.

ISSUE cuoMO KOCH ISSUE cuomMO
© TIER III REFORM FOR AGAINST @ MANDATORY RETIREMENT AGAINST
Modify to eliminate Social Amend rules to force
Security “offset” employees to retire ata
certain age regardless of
ability to serve
@ TAYLOR LAW REFORM FOR AGAINST
Provocation as a mitigating ® RIGHT-TO-KNOW LAW SUPPORTED | OPPOSED
factor in strike penalties Notification to public
employees handling
hazardous materials of
© CIVIL SERVICE “REFORM” | AGAINST FOR dangers
Broaden “rule of three,
provide for involuntary ® CSEA-STATE CONTRACTS SUPPORTED | OPPOSED
transfer, enlarge Legislation to finance the
management / confidential contract settlement between
class : CSEA and the State of New
York £
@ PUBLIC EMPLOYEE OSHA SUPPORTED | OPPOSED @ SUB-MINIMUM WAGE AGAINST FOR

THE PUBLIC SECTOR, Friday, September 10, 1982

FOR

UNL SERVICE EMPLOYEES AS"
LONG ISLAND REGION "”

MARIO CUOMO, second from right, greeted CSEA marchers in a recent labor-sponsored
parade for Cuomo in Patchogue, Long Island. Among CSEAers were, from left, Nat Zum-
mo, Long Island Region President Danny Donohue, Arthur Loving, Mr. Cuomo, and Nick

CUOMO LITERATURE was recently distributed in front of the Dutchess County office
building by, from left, CSEA Region III President Ray O’Connor, statewide Political Ac-
tion Committee Chairman Joe Conway, volunteer Carl Mathison, and Unit President
Mary Rich.

TAKING THEIR TURN to contact potential voters are, from left, Rockland County Local
$44 President Patsy Spicci, and Rockland Psychiatric Center Local 421 President Eva
Katz. Mr. Spicci explained his involvement by saying that in the upcoming primary,
“unions have a lot to lose,”’ while Mrs. Katz added, “I truly believe Mario Cuomo is the
man for working people.”

THE PUBLIC SECTOR, Friday, September 10, 1982
CSEA and AFSCME are heading up labor’s opposition
lin New York State to a proposed federal balanced budget
lamendment to the U.S. Constitution. The campaign, aimed
lat preventing the issue from reaching a vote on the floor of
the U.S. House of Representatives, continues to pick up
steam.

On the national level, AFSCME International President
Gerald McEntee has been named by AFL-CIO President
Lane Kirkland to head a committee of labor leaders
working to defeat the balanced budget issue. Within New
York State, nearly a dozen congressmen have been targeted
for special efforts by labor to convince them to vote against
the proposed amendment if the issue reached the House
floor.

CSEA Statewide President William L. McGowan,
joined by other statewide officers, has repeatedly called for
rejection of the proposed amendment. Out in CSEA’s
Western Region, Regional President Robert L. Lattimer
has helped organize a postcard campaign directed
particularly at selected congressmen in the region.
Lattimer said the postcards will be collected for a massive
delivery to the congressmen as an express of ‘“‘total
opposition” to an amendment which “would be devastating
to us all.”

Targeted Region VI congressmen
are Rep. John LaFalce, 36th District;
Rep. Henry Nowak, 37th District;
Rep. Stanley Lundine, 39th District;
and Rep. Frank Horton, 34th District.
Members are being urged to sign the
postcards and return them to their
Local officers or the CSEA Regional
Headquarters office for final delivery
to the selected congressmen.

Other New York State congressmen
targeted for special efforts by CSEA
and AFSCME include Rep. Leo
Zeferetti, 15th District; William
Green, 18th District; Benjamin
Gilman, 26th District; and Samuel
Stratton, 29th District. Nationwide, an
additional 80 congressmen from other
states have been selected for special
attention from AFSCME.

Lattimer pointed out, ‘‘We’ll be fighting this all the
way. We’re aiming at keeping it from being discharged to
the House floor from the Judiciary Committee. But if that
doesn’t work, we’ll fight it down on the floor, and if
necessary, fight ratification in the states. The first step is
for all our members to get those cards signed and in to the
regional office.”

BUDGET

BALANCED

produced

but tipping scales of
justice against labor

AMENDMENT

CSEA President William L. McGowan
on the amendment: ;

the:
bi

A 14-state AFL-CIO television conference recently signaled the shifting of
labor’s campaign against the balanced budget constitutional amendment
proposal from the halls of Congress to the home districts of House members
whose votes will be crucial.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Thomas R. Donahue and other national
leaders in the campaign used the AFSCME labor news network for a closed
circuit telecast that was beamed by satellite to the targeted locations across
the country, including Rochester, N.Y.

N.Y. to lose billions

“One depression in this century is more than enough.”

Using that theme, the AFL-CIO has mounted an all-out campaign to turn
back the proposed balanced budget amendment.

It is projected that the effect of a balanced budget on New York State
alone would, in 1987, be the loss of $1.58 billion in Federal revenues; loss of
$5.23 billion in state and local revenues; loss of $770 million in Medicaid
funds; lost of $270 million in education funds; and loss of $94 million in social
and child welfare services funds.

AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee, who is chairman of an AFL-CIO
Executive Council committee coordinating labor’s campaign against the
amendment, moderated the program and joined other participants in replying
to questions phoned in from the local and state union leaders at the 14 locations.

Letter Carriers’ President Vincent R. Sombrotto, American Federation of
Teachers Vice President Antonia Cortese and Rep. Claude Pepper (D-Fla.)
were the other participants from the Washington studio of AFSCME.

All three pounded away the thinness of the case made for writing a clearly
workable economic theory into the Constitution and urged personal calls on
House members in their home districts to let them know the intensity of labor’s
opposition to the amendment.

Donahue stressed the double goal of the grass-roots lobbying effort — to
persuade House members not to provide the 218 signatures needed to take the
amendment out of the Judiciary Committee and bring it to the floor and to vote
against the proposal if it comes before the House.

He told a questioner that the AFL-CIO is not a “‘one-issue’’ organization,
but that House members should be aware of the importance labor puts on this
issue. It would be hard to campaign with enthusiasm for the election of
members of Congress who vote wrong on such a job-related issue, he
suggested.

Page 12

THE PUBLIC SECTOR, Friday, September 10, 1982

COMPUTER TALK
— Discussing the new
computer program in
the Department of
Labor are, from left,
Metropolitan Region
Director George

Bispham, Field
Representative Al
Sundmark, :Attorney |
Theodore Ruthizer,
Region President
George Caloumeno,
Labor Local 350
President Denis
Tobin and Local 350
Treasurer John
Gianguercio.

CSEA to monitor experimental
computer project in NYC Labor Dept.

NEW YORK CITY — CSEA Metropolitan Region
II and the Department of Labor have reached
agreement on a plan to allow CSEA to monitor the
implementation of a “trial” computerization
project in the department. The agreement was
reached at a labor/management meeting held
recently in New York City.

Region President George Caloumeno hailed the
agreement as a sign that the Department of Labor
“has finally recognized the advantages of
cooperating with CSEA in developing new

programs affecting our members.’’

The computerization project is being tried in five
Unemployment Insurance local offices. It requires
Grade 7 senior employment services clerks to enter
information into a computer rather than onto a
form, as has been the practice.

Caloumeno reports that members working on the
computers have noted a variety of problems with
the system.

“The computerization project substantially
changes, in many. ways, the work Grade 7 clerks

do,” Caloumeno says. “By CSEA monitoring the
program when it is still in the experimental stage,
we will be able to iron out any bugs in the system
that might cause big problems when the system
goes full-scale.”

The Department of Labor plans to install the
computer system in all its local offices.

Serving on the committee to monitor the project
for Region II are: Coloumeno, Department of
Labor Local 350 President Denis Tobin and Local
350 Treasurer John Gianguercio.

e
Member earns labor certificate | Partial settlement reached
° °
on DMV uniforms issue
SYRACUSE —Lin- the Fourth Annual Graduation held recently
da Fiorentino, form- in North Syracuse. ALBANY — When the Department of Motor
er vice president of The new graduates attended evening Vehicles stripped its 140 license examiners of their
e CSEA Local 822 classes at Onondaga or Mohawk Valley Com- military-style uniforms last March, CSEA responded
Herkimer County, munity Colleges over a period of two years. with an improper practices charge. A partial
was recently award- The extensive program included such settlement has now been reached on the issue.
ed a Certificate in courses of study as: labor law, public sector __ “The department has agreed to give each of the
Labor Studies from  jabor law, arbitration, collective bargaining, license examiners a™one-time $150 payment, and
the School of In- oral and written communications, social CSEA is withdrawing the IP charge,” announced
dustrial and Labor pehavior and work, labor history, interna- Barbara Stack, who represents Motor Vehicle
Relations at Cornell tional affairs, and contract administration. 4 members on the union’s statewide Board of Directors.
University. Fiorentino, a resident of Herkimer, is cur- The agreement was worked out, with DMV
; A rently employed at Upstate Medical Center, in management by Stack, DMV Local 674 President
Fiorentino was one Syracuse, but formerly served the enimer Dann Wood, and Motor Vehicle License Examiner
Linda Fiorentino of 11 local area School District and held’a number of offices Tom Byrne, who served this year as a member of the
e labor activists who in CSEA Loc: al 822. Shi continues to aerve a4 Administrative Services Unit negotiating team.
completed the Cornell Labor Studies Pro- chairperson for the Region V Program Com- _ “But we want the license examiners to know that
gram of Central New York, and took part in mittee this issue isn’t fully resolved yet,” Stack said. ‘‘On-
: going ‘impact’ negotiations are continuing to resolve
the question of uniform allowance and maintenance.”
SEPTEMBER 21—New York Metropolitan Retirees Local 910
of EVENTS li—Lewis County Local 825 Annual Summer He Boo 19 a are REAHE Contr atom)
. y , New Yor! ity.
. Outing, 1 pan., VFW Hall, Lowville, 21-22—-CSEA/Department of, Corrections
12-17—“Training of the Trainers” CSEA/AFSCME Workshop, Friar Tuck Inn, Catskill.
seminar for Region II members, officers and 94 94 1982 Mental Hygiene Presidents Workshop,
; . i stewards selected by the region, Friar Tuck Friar Tuck Inn, Catskill.
Calendar items should be mailed to The Inn, Catskill. 4 2 iS
Public Sector, 1 Columbia Place, Albany, ISEA/C ' 25—Region III School Forum for officers and
9907. sale Ages 19—CSEA/Cuomo Day at Playland, Rye, noon- be f school district units, 10:30 a.m.
New York 12207. Items must contain the name members of school district units, .
and telephone number of the sender for fa Westchester Local 860 office, 196 Maple Ave.,
verification purposes. 20—Retiree Local 903 meeting, 1:30 p.m., Holiday White Plains.
Inn, 620 Delaware Ave., Buffalo. June Cohen, 25—Cortland County Local 812, general
taxpayer service specialist, Internal Revenue membership and retiree picnic, noon, Dwyer
e Service, scheduled speaker. County Park, Little York.

~ Page “13x

THE PUBLIC'SEGFOR} 'Rriday? Septerhbet® 10/982" i

“e
ze -
Le ‘ ‘ed : ‘ :
= “Se
ae
ar)
ce
4 &.:
a. OS Lal ale

NATURE BREAK — Taking time out from
seminars, discussions and other meetings,
OGS stewards revel in the glory of nature at
Camp Topridge. From left to right are Willie
Mae Taylor, Myrtle Johnson, Pat Acker, Artis
Davry, Vanbilla Youngblood, Margaret

Shaeffer and Ernestine Gailliard.

COMMITTEE AT WORK — Local President
Earl Kilmartin, standing, oversees the ac-
tivities of the OGS Shop Steward Seminar
Committee. From left to right are Cosmo
Lembo, John Wakewood, Ernestine Gailliard,
Artis Daury, Peggy Hoag and Pat Acker.

Contracts to be
mailed to all |
state members

ALBANY — After months of delays
triggered by the state Senate’s foot-
dragging in approving the new CSEA-
State contracts, union members
should be receiving their copies of the
new contracts soon and, for the first
time, every employee will be receiv-
ing his or her own copy in the mail.

“Your contract is the backbone of
your relationship with your
employer,” said CSEA President
William L. McGowan, ‘‘and you have
a right to know all of its provisions
and use all of the benefits we have
fought so hard to achieve.”’

Mr. McGowan announced that all
employees in CSEA’s three state
‘bargaining units will be receiving in-
dividual copies of their contract in the
mail. Copies of the contracts are ex-
pected to begin being processed for
mailing next week. Because of the
size of the bargaining units, the pro-
cess is expected to take three weeks.

Copies of the agreements are also
being shipped to union Regional Of-
fices for local leaders and stewards
for grievance administration and in-
formational purposes.

Page 4

CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY LOCAL 807 President Jim
Kurtz, standing left, congratulates newly installed union
8700 officers, Front row, from left, are board member
Jim Hall and Secretary Janie Raynor, Middle row are
board member Sandy Bain and Vice President Dick

THE PUBLIC SECTOR, Friday, September 10, 1982

OGS stewards
tout Topridge
as tops for training

BRIGHTON — Camp Topridge, the former summer
camp of the Marjorie Merriweather Post family and the
site of several top level management think tank sessions,
recently served as the location for the CSEA Office of
General Services Local 660 Shop Steward Training
Seminar.

Built by the Posts, the 19th century ‘‘great camp”
was donated to the state by the Post Foundation in 1974,
and is now administered by OGS. It consists of 68 struc-
tures on 207 acres, and includes nine guest cottages and
four servant houses which can accommodate 65 over-
night guests. The camp’s focal point is its 20,000-square-
foot main lodge.

“It’s a great place to get away from it all and concen-
trate on the union business at hand,” said OGS Local
President Earl Kilmartin.

Maggio. Top row are board member Mark Dreihaup and
President Bill Beckerink. Not pictured were Treasurer
Mark Szarnicki and board members Howard Raven,
Bruce Crandall and Bill Osmer.

ROME — A driving rainstorm and near-gale
winds failed to stop a group of determined
employees at Rome Developmental Center from
demonstrating against the recent threat of 138
layoffs by the State Office of Mental Retardation
and Developmental Disabilities.

More than 120 off-duty employees braved the
inclement weather to walk the early morning
informational picket line called for Aug. 25 at the
main entrance of the Rome D.C. campus,
according to Jon Premo, president of Local 422.

“Our officers, stewards and members have
been geared up for a demonstration since we
first learned of the proposed layoffs several
months ago,” Premo said.

“Our first course of action was to call for a
general membership meeting and explain the
situation in full to the employees. With Regional
President Jim Moore on hand for the meeting,
we laid it on the line to the members and asked
for their full support.”

Premo related that Steve Arbes, an employee
at the facility, designed a ‘SAVE OUR STAFF’
bumper sticker and reminder lapel pin to add
impact to the campaign. ‘‘In a matter of weeks

IROME DEVELOPME

they were produced and getting the message
across to the public,” he said.

Recounting other steps, Premo explained the
mass media blitz that followed.

“We wanted to give the public and taxpayers
in the Rome-Utica area the inside story. Through
CSEA communications in Syracuse, we
arranged two solid days of newspaper, television
and radio interviews that gave us the
opportunity to explain the problems.”

Premo said they covered all points thoroughly
— what the layoffs could mean to the quality of
patient care, the present short staffing problem,
the inadequacies of the present 1.78 patient-to-
staff ratio, mandatory overtime and the morale
problem it is causing with employees, as well as
the chaos that would come with layoffs and the
seniority “bumping rights” they would trigger at
nearby mental health facilities.

“Slowly but surely, the public got the message
and began to understand the critical nature of
our problems,’ Premo said. ‘We were also
pleasantly surprised to see a sympathetic
editorial in a Utica paper that urged the state
authorities to reconsider the layoffs.””

In describing the first day of the informational
picket Premo recalled ‘everything seemed to

“SOS,

. OUR git

NTAL CENTER

LOCAL 422

NOT
ERVICES!

PICKETS A-PLENTY — Above, some of the
more than 120 members of Rome Developmental
Center who turned out for a recent informational
picket ... at left, three men who helped make
the picket a success. From left to right are
member Harold Bradbury, who made signs for
the marchers, Local 422 President Jon Premo,
and member Steve Arbes, who designed “Save
Our Staff” bumper sticker and pin.

Layoff threat spurs mass picketing

peak for that first morning. Harold Bradbury,
one of our many dedicated CSEA members,
spent hours of his own time making picket signs
for the marchers. Our team captains informed
the members to be ready to picket rain or shine.
At 7:30 a.m. that morning, we had over 120 off
duty employees ready to walk. Most of them had
worked all night. Some had used a precious
vacation day to march with their brothers and
sisters.” He said support also came from Bud
Mulchy, Sue Buerzinski, Cindy Hammond, and
John Giehl from Marcy and Utica Psychiatric
Centers.

“It was great experience — CSEA at its
fighting best,” Premo said. ‘To see those
employees from every department walking
together in the rain and wind to ‘Save Our Staff’
was a sight I’ll never forget.”

Since the first days of picketing CSEA has
learned that the state has reconsidered the layoff
order, and has informed the employees through
the director of Rome D.C. that it plans to
terminate only a small number of teachers.

The employees at Rome D.C., with the help of
CSEA, are determined to continue the fight to
halt any layoffs and have pledged to take that
fight to Albany if necessary.

oe

~ Page 15,,

THE PUBLIC SECTOR, Friday, September 10, ,1982,

CSEA member Marge Mackey

SS

tae AE

She opened up her
heart and home to
stranded fire victims

ALBANY — Marge Mackey, a shop steward in CSEA Audit and Control
Local 651, does more than just believe in a good neighbor policy — she lives it.

When a suspicious Sunday night fire destroyed both a vacant structure and
a single family home and damaged a second home in her neighborhood in
Rensselaer, Mackey opened her own small, two-story single family home to the
two tragedy-struck families.

By the following morning, Marge Mackey was the head of a household that
numbered 24 individuals, young and old, black and white.

“The Graham family, Robert and Ola, and their eight adopted children,
lost everything in the fire. The fire department had to have a neighborhood
pharmacy open up in the middle of the night so that we could buy diapers and
special formula for the three babies. They didn’t even have socks,’’ Mackey
recalled.

“While the Alexander family could move back to their heat-damaged home
after the Tepairs were made, the Grahams’ had no where to go. So we became a
family of 18,” she said.

“Being such a large family in such a small house meant that every floor,
even the basement, had to be used. The children were great. They took their
beds apart. Some slept on the mattresses, others on the mattress boxes. They
were no problem,’’ Mackey noted.

But problems did not stop pursuing either family. Mackey’s mother, who
was living with her at the time of the fire, died. And one of the Graham babies
was discovered to have a potentially serious health problem.

“We shared a lot of hard times together,’ Ola Graham said. ‘After 17
years of being neighbors, being friends, her actions towards me and my family
really shows how much she cares.”’

Irate Queensbury membership rejects contract offer

GOOD NEIGHBOR AWARD-WINNER Marge Mackey, right, a CSEA shop
steward with the Department of Audit and Control, shows her award to Bar-
bara Skelly, left, president of CSEA Audit and Control Local 651.

Four months after the fire destroyed the Grahams’ home the family moved
into another house just a few doors away from the Mackey residence. ‘‘When
they moved out, I felt lonely. But they’re still my neighbors,”’ Mackey said.

Without her prior knowledge, the Capital City Seventh Day Adventist
Church recently selected Marge Mackey as the winner of their first Good
Neighbor Award. Pastor Ronald Oden said, ‘‘Mrs. Mackey’s self-sacrifice in
aiding the Graham family shows her dedication to serving her own neighbors.
Some people can’t put up with visiting relatives or friends for even a few day
Mackey opened her home and her heart to a family of 10 for several months.

CSEA Audit and Control Local President Barbara Skelly also spoke highly
of Marge, saying CSEA should be proud of its members, especially people like
Marge who “‘live a life of service to their community to the fullest.”

QUEENSBURY — Upset by town
Management’s arrogant attitude, The Town of
Queensbury CSEA Unit has rejected a mediated
contract offer by a margin of 5 to 1.

“Our membership is irate at management’s
offer in light of recent substantial increases in
management’s own salary structure,” Pat
Monachino, CSEA collective bargaining
specialist, said.

“Our members know that Queensbury Town
Supervisor Fran Walter, who sits on the town’s
negotiating team, recently received a
increase of 27 percent, from $13,000 to

$16,500. That’s in addition to her $6,805 salary
from the Warren County Board of Supervisors.
Her total public official salary is $23,305. That’s
much higher than any of our members in the
town unit earn,” Monachino reported.

CSEA members are upset with all three parts
of the town’s offer, he said. The rejected package
included a seven percent salary increase tied to
a $10 per pay period employee health insurance
payment, and also included a change in the
overtime assignment system from a rotation
system to voluntary assignment.

“The workers, some of whom only clear a little

over $5,200 per year after taxes, are upset with
the low salary offer. They don’t think that the
voluntary overtime system will be fair, and
because of their low incomes don’t believe that
management should be seeking to continue to
have the workers pay for health insurance,”
Monachino said.

The CSEA Unit is preparing for fact-finding
with legal briefs expected to be ready in 30 days.
However, the CSEA membership has also
empowered the negotiating committee to “take
whatever steps are necessary to resolve this
contract dispute,” the union spokesperson said.

Local 350 President Denis Tobin, Region II President Ray O’Connor,
Kingsboro Psychiatric Center Local 402 President and Region I Political
Action Chairman Robert Nurse, Region II President George Caloumeno,
Manhattan Psychiatric Center Local 413 President Floyd Payne and
Ramona Gallagher.

CSEA POLITICAL ACTION Training Specialist Ramona Gallagher recent-
ly visited Metropolitan Region II to discuss getting out the vote for Lt.
Governor Mario Cuomo on Primary Day, Sept. 23. Pictured left to right are
Waterfront Local 066 President James Harrison, Department of Labor

Page 16 THE PUBLIC SECTOR, Friday, September 10, 1982

CENTRAL ISLIP — No jobs will be lost in the
transfer of most units of Central Islip
Psychiatric Center to nearby Kings Park and
Pilgrim psychiatric centers.

The security of 100 percent of the affected
employees — including provisional and
temporary employees — was obtained by CSEA
both by legislation and agreements negotiated
with the Department of Mental Hygiene.

The first groups, totaling 287 workers, were
notified that transfers will be made from
November to mid-December to the Kings Park
center, which is about eight miles away. Up to
1,000 workers may be shifted in spring to
Pilgrim, which is four-and-a-half miles away.

Under the state’s reorganization plan, Central
Islip will be retained permanently as the
regional geriatric care facility, with about 500
beds.

When the state’s plan, Central Islip will be
retained permanently as the regional geriatric
care facility, with about 500 beds.

When the state’s plans for reorganization in
the Long Island Region first became known two
years ago, it appeared certain that Central Istip
was to be closed entirely, which would mez the
loss of 1,000 jobs.

oe de : oe

Dan Donohue, President

CSEA, however, secured passage of legislation
guaranteeing that no jobs would be lost. The
legislation was firmed up in negotiations with the
department to cover all provisional and
temporary workers as well.

Long Island Region I President Danny

All Central Islip jobs secured in transfers

Donohue said the interyention of statewide CSEA
President William L. McGowan was of critical
importance in the battle to save the jobs. He said
the union headquarters worked closely with the
Long Island Region office, as well as with
George Donovan, president of Central Islip
Psychiatric Center Local 404, Carl Fennell,
president of Kings Park Psychiatric Center
Local 411 and Joe Noya, president of Pilgrim
Psychiatric Center Local 418.

In addition to the job-saving guarantee, CSEA
negotiated the shift of entire units so that pass
days and seniority would be preserved.

“We came a long way,”’ Donohue asserted.
“CSEA has been able to turn it around to save all
the jobs and preserve seniority and assure to
continuance of Central Islip as a permanent
facility.”

The shift follows state approval of the sale of
500 acres of the Central Islip property to the
Town of Islip, which plans a branch campus for
the New York Institute of Technology and a high-
technology industrial park.

The sale was advocated by Assemblyman Paul
Harenberg, who, when met with CSEA
opposition, agreed to sponsor legislation to
guarantee that no jobs would be lost as a result.

Tom McDonough out of hospital

ALBANY — After a three-month
hospitalization, CSEA Executive Vice
President Thomas H. McDonough has
been discharged from a Capital
District hospital and has returned
home to complete his recovery from a
serious illness.

The union’s second highest ranking
statewide officer told the Public Sec-
tor this week that he is feeling much
better these days and is up and
around for the first time since he was
hospitalized in May.

He was reelected to a third term as
Executive Vice President in June.

“We've been swamped with cards
and letters from CSEA people all over
the state,” McDonough said, ‘‘and I
just wanted them all to know that I
am feeling pretty good again andl am
delighted to be at home again.”

Hundreds of CSEA Delegates atten- :
ding a special one day delegates’ é
meeting in Albany last month signed

TITLE

a

Artist Designer II G-11.
Artist Designer III G-14
Artist Designer IV G-18........

Senior Laboratory Animal Caretaker G-8
Principal Laboratory Animal Caretaker G-11
Principal Mail and Supply Clerk G-11.

Principal Stores Clerk G-12....

Senior Actuarial Clerk G-9...

Principal Actuarial Clerk G-12.

Senior Drafting Technician (General) G-11. .
Senior Drafting Technician (Structural) G-11
Principal Drafting Technician (General) G-15.
Principal Drafting Technician (Structural) G-15.

COMPETITIVE
PROMOTIONAL EXAMS

(State employees only)
FILING ENDS SEPT. 27, 1982

DEPARTMENT

Head Actuarial Clerk G-16.
Transportation Maintenance Engineer I M-2

Chief Environmental Analyst M-4

a giant get-well card which was
brought to McDonough’s room at St.
Peter’s Hospital in Albany, by CSEA
President William L. McGowan.

“I was touched by all the get well

THOMAS H. McDONOUGH

wishes and I thought it was about time
to let everyone know that I’m doing
very well and I plan to be back on the
job soon,” the executive vice presi-
dent said.

Plaza security agreement reached

ALBANY — An agreement has been reached between the Capital Region
of CSEA and the state Office of General Services on a five-point program
designed to increase public employee security at the huge Empire State Plaza

complex here.

The agreement was reached after the union demanded a meeting to
discuss employee security following the recent rape of a CSEA member in a
stairwell of the Plaza, a massive complex where some 17,000 state employees

work.

Details of the agreement will be announced in the next issue of The Public

Sector.

EXECUTIVE
Supervisor of General Services, Grounds :
Operations and Horticulture I G-14 a)
Supervisor of General Services, Grounds............. GS
Equalization Rates Analyst IT i
ee Equalization & Assessment

Equalization & Assessment

Equalization & Assessment
Director, Valuation Research & Development
M-4 .Equalization & Assessment
Senior Sanitary Chemis‘ G-18.

Insurance Premium Auditor IT

G-23State Insurance Fund: ..
Senior Payroll Audit Clerk G-8
Senior Underwriting Clerk G-8. . . State Insurance Fund
Head Actuarial Clerk G-16.... State Insurance Fund
Senior Clerk (Estate Tax Appraisal) G-7..... TAX & FINANCE
Principal Clerk (Estate Tax Appraisal)

-State Insurance Fund

TAX & FINANCE

SHE PUBLIC SECTOR, Friday, September 10, 1982

Page 17

Union effort for Cuomo
very active in Buffalo

CSEA VOLUNTEERS FOR CUOMO — CSEA members all across New York
State have been hard at work performing volunteer services on behalf of the
campaign of Mario Cuomo for the Democratic nomination for governor. Out in
the western part of the state, CSEA Western Region VI Political Action Com-
mittee Co-chairman Dominic Savarino, standing left, works with other
volunteers at the Buffalo office of the Cuomo campaign. In photo at above
right, Western Region First Vice President Genevieve Clark works in the
Cuomo Buffalo campaign headquarters.

Vote for CSEA-endorsed

MARIO CUOMO

Primary Day
September 23

Union secures hack pay, jobs
for 3 falsely accused MHTAs

PERRYSBURG — Three employees of the J.N. Adam Devel-
opmental Center here have been reinstated to their jobs with full back
pay and benefits after being exonerated of charges, according to Dana
Tietz, grievance chairman for CSEA Local 400.

The CSEA members were represented in the successful arbitration
proceedings by Region VI attorney Ron Jaros.

Mental Hygiene Therapy Aides Deanna Snyder and Lois
VanAernam, charged in the same incident, had been suspended without
pay for seven months, Tietz said, after being falsely charged with abuse.

An arbitrator’s decision found Snyder innocent of the charges, and
the state withdrew its case against VanAernam,

Mental Hygiene Therapy Aide Michael Bilansky was also forced into
a suspension, lasting six months, until an arbitrator’s decision found him
not guilty of patient abuse accusations.

“An MHTA’s job is a very difficult one,” said Tietz, “because many
times the patient is acting out and the MHTA is struggling simply to keep
the patient from injuring himself or others. ‘

“So it’s important for all our MHTA members to know that CSEA will
| go the limit to see that their job rights are protected when they are
k uae arama in cases such as these,” the grievance chairman

Gane

open competitive

TATE JOB CALENDAR

FILING ENDS SEPTEMBER 13, 1982
Beginning Salary Exam. No.
$12,958 25-687
15,473 25-684
18,328 25-685

16,383 25-739

Title
Electronic Computer Operator
Public Health Representative I
Public Health Representative IT
Recreation Therapist
Recreation Therapist (Spanish Speaking)

FILING ENDS SEPTEMBER 27, 1982
Recreation Therapist (Art)
Recreation Therapist (Dance)
Recreation Therapist (Music)
Recreation Therapist, Senior
Recreation Therapist (Spanish Speaking), Senior

16,383
16,383
16,383

19,375

25-740
25-741
25-742

25-743

25-691
thru

25-703
80-057
28-421

Stenographer, Principal 14,515-14,601*
25,335

Directory of Temporary Release, Assistant
20,692

International Business Assistant

. FILING ENDS OCTOBER 4, 1982
Rehabilitation Hospital Education & Staff Development 23,975
Specialist (Physical Therapy)

28-424

rte nl taal AAO Ce

; TAKE A BITE OUT OF |

DCJS HELPING NYS GRIME

STRATE STE AST

cr

"| Bicycles become the
vehicles to attract
: public attention to

rising crime rates

ALBANY — When two state Division of Criminal Justice Services
employees rolled their sleek bikes into Albany last month enroute to a
525-mile ride from Buffalo to Manhattan, many of their fellow employees
at DCJS here turned out to cheer their efforts and to accompany the pair as
they rode through the Capital District.

e The marathon bike ride for DCJS researcher Vincent Vanti and Bill
Longworth, DCJS crime prevention assistant director, was designed to
draw public attention to the seriousness of rising crime statistics. Both are
Albany residents and work for DCJS here.

Many of their fellow DCJS employees who turned out to welcome the
riders and to accompany them a short distance were members of DCJS
CSEA Local 695. The accompanying photo was taken by Local 695 Presi-

- ‘ wat ee
CSEA LOCAL 695 members with their “Help New York Take a Bite Out of
Crime” shirts and their bikes just prior to joining fellow DCJS employees on
part of their bikethon to dramatize serious rise in crime. From left are
Jackie Hankle, Diane Schleede, Paul Reeves, Harold Porter and Donna

dent Cindy Egan, and all the riders shown are members of the local.

Xv

rma men sc sa

Porter.

FISHKILL — Efforts to improve
communications among school
district units of the Southern Region
have led to the scheduling of two
“school forums” as follows: ‘

@ Saturday, Sept. 25, at the
Westchester Loeal 860 office, 196
Maple Ave., White Plains, 10:30 a.m,

@ Saturday, Oct. 2, at the Regional
office, Fishkill, 10:30 a.m.

Officers and members of all school
district units are invited to attend
either or both of the sessions.

The Southern Region includes Dut~
-chess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland,
Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester
counties.

Forums
set for
Reg. Il
school
members

{AM NRA EISEN SATE

EAP for SUNY Canton

ADMINISTRATIVE AND UNION officials
representing employees at SUNY Canton ATC
gathered recently for the signing of the official
EAP charter. Seated left to right are Horace
Donaldson, assistant director, Personnel and Af-
firmative Action; Dennis Pagoda, Campus
Association store manager; Carol Dubsky, EAP
committee chairperson. Second row are Loretta
Rodwell, president, CSEA Local 603; Barbara
Barnett, campus nurse and PEF representative;
June Taillon, CSEA Administrative Unit
representative; Lloyd Brainard, CSEA Opera-
tional Unit representative and Roger Catlin,
director, Business Affairs. Third row are Judy
Ryan, faculty; Edward Reynolds, AFSCME
Council 82 representative; John Crary, presi-
dent, Campus UUP and Gordon Myers, director
of Personnel and Affirmative Action.

Many agencies are recognized for
suggestion program participation

ALBANY — Civil Service Commission President Joseph A. F. Valenti
recently made several awards to state agencies for their outstanding par-
ticipation in the employee Suggestion Program.

In a recent ceremony at the State Campus announcing Employee
Suggestion Program Week (July 25-31), Valenti and Commissioners
Josephine L. Gambino and James T. McFarland awarded plaques to
representatives of five agencies: the Department of Motor Vehicles, the
Crime Victims Compensation Board, Criminal Justice Services, the Divi-
sion of Probation and Agriculture and Markets, all of which have
“outstanding program participation records.”

Valenti also announced the approval of an award of $13,500, the sec-
ond highest award in the 35-year history of the program. It went to
Thomas A. Pratuch, an assistant civil engineer in the Department of
Transportation, Rochester, for a suggestion to eliminate the use of
bituminous waterproofing material in all DOT construction contracts.

NLL TILES SPB IIMS ONS MORIN

pe: ~~eveeee THE PUBS SEGTOR, SiG. SCRIRDRG 101 IBD onsoeBAGS-A9

Local 1000, AFSCME, AFL-CIO