The Public Sector, 1993 January

Official publication of {

a THE PUBLIC : > 16, No. 1 JANUARY 1993
AL GOVERNMENT NEWS PAGES 1-8 | GENERALNEWSSECTIONPAGES9-16 NEWS SEC: E

=VEEV E

ZING IS

NOTICE OF ELECTION
of CSEA region
officers...Page 10

Government

News

INDEX
Page 3

Nassau County CSEA members protest “pork and
patronage.”

Page 4

CSEA continues to fight for members’ security in
the wake of the Watkins Glen tragedy.

Page 5

CSEA wins’a round in the battle against
privatizing Niagara County's nursing home.
Page 6

CSEA members save money in Ulster County by
doing their own bridge repair.

Page 7

ACSEA member fights drunk driving.

Page 8
CSEA wins back the job of an activist fired
unfairly.

CSEA TOWN OF HEMPSTEAD LOCAL 880 was honored for its Angel Tree Program, which

donates gifts to needy families during the holiday season. Above, Hempstead Town
Council representatives Patrick A. Zagarino, second from left, and David A. Levy, far
left, look on as Salvation Army Lt. Col. Raymond Wood presents a plaque to Local 880
President Peter Ellison, second from right. At far right is Leslie Koenig of Levittown.

CSEA unit
helps during
holidays

MT. PLEASANT - Employees of the Town of Mt.

Pleasant made the holidays brighter for hospital
patients in Westchester County.

Unit President Barbara Adams wanted to

acknowledge the generosity of CSEA members and
management who donated candy and toiletries to the

cancer patients at Rosary Hill Nursing Home and
toys for the children who are undergoing
rehabilitation at Blythdale Children's Hospital in
Valhalla.

“This is the second year we've done this,” she said.
“I just want to thank everyone for their help.”

oy a

re et.

Nassau DPW workers save county money

MINEOLA - When Joe Licardi heard that Nassau County was

Department of Public Works (DPW) employees didn’t like the
thinking of contracting out an unpleasant job, he and his fellow

precedent it would set.

So they volunteered to clean out a
long-unused parachute hangar full of
pigeon droppings, a health threat that
| caused the county to receive a health
‘| and safety citation.

“We saved the county at least
$5,000,” said Licardi, DPW Unit
president. “And I think we
demonstrated that we have a DPW
workforce that is dedicated to keeping
public work for public employees.”

DPW employees from several
worksites volunteered to scrub and
hose down the old hangar at Nassau
Community College Campus, Licardi
said.

“It was a great demonstration of our
guys pitching in to help the county,” he
said.

The unit is part of CSEA Nassau
County Local 830.

THE

aD OCLO“L.,

The Public Sector (USPS 0445-010) is published monthly by The Civil Service Employees e\
Association. Publication Office: 143 Washington Avenue, Albany, New York 12210.
Second Class Postage paid at Post Office, Albany, New York 12288.

Postmaster: Send address changes to: Civil Service Employees Association,
Attn: Membership Department, 143 Washington Avene, Albany, New York 12210.

Official publication of The Civil Service
Employees Association, Inc., Local 1000,
AFSCME, AFL-CIO, 143 Washington
Avenue, Albany, New York, 12210

MICHAEL P. MORAN, Publisher
ROGER A. COLE, Editor
KATHLEEN DALY, Associate Editor
STANLEY HORNAK, Assistant Director

Ni of Communications

ee COMMUNICATION ASSOCIATES

SHERYL C. JENKS
LILLY GIOIA.
ANITA MANLEY
DAN CAMPBELL
MARK M. KOTZIN

Region I RON WOFFORD Region VI
(516) 273-2280 (716) 886-0391
Region II STEPHEN MADARASZ Headquarters
(212) 406-2156 (518) 434-0191
Region III

(914) 831-1000 ssh COC,

Region IV 3] \

(518) 489-5424 5 B

Region V Z| i

(315) 433-0050 y ~

7 SAFLCIOICLO

2 January 1993 : gZ ’

LOCAL GOVERNMENT NEWS

A fight for public service

CSEA battles ‘pork and patronage’ in Nassau

CSEA pressure pays off in Nassau budget

Nassau County CSEA members and public services are the big
winners as a result of a bipartisan county budget adopted by the
Nassau County Board of Supervisors as this edition of The Public
Sector went to press. :
__ “The public pressure that CSEA brought on the upes viene
through testimony, demonstrations, political action and
newspaper ads paid off,” said CSEA Nassau Cc
President Rita Wallace.
: ‘There are no layoffs and the budget restores about 1 000°
positions to help maintain essential services. CSEA remains
critical of excessive contracting-out of services that could be
better performed by Nassau County pmployes :

MINEOLA -"Privatizing is hogwash!” shouted CSEA Nassau
County Local 830 members who mounted a massive protest
outside a Nassau County Board of Supervisors budget meeting,
recently.

To drive home CSEA’s disgust with politicians willing to sell
public services for patronage and pork, the union parked a giant
pig at the supervisor's front door.

Union members, incensed by North Hempstead Town Supervisor
Ben Zwirn’s proposal to sell the Nassau County Medical Center
(NCMC) to private, for-profit vendors, hung Zwirn in effigy.
Privatizing NCMC will lead to nothing but “pork and patronage” for
the politicians, shouted hundreds of CSEA Nassau County
members facing chilling winter winds.

“This is nothing but a hare-brained scheme,”
Local 830 President Rita Wallace said.

“Who can believe that a bunch of greedy doctors will maintain
the quality of urgently needed medical center health services when
they don’t bring in the bucks?” asked Wallace, pointing to a Los
Angeles study of privatized public health services which called
them catastrophic failures. “It’s insulting and dangerous to put our
Nassau families at risk.”

County officials are studying a proposal to privatize
NCMC, which houses the state-of-the-art trauma center
and burn unit.

According to NCMC Unit President Sue Duffe, CSEA
members believe that a profit-motivated consortium of
physicians would not feel compelled to maintain units that
are not money-makers like the hospital’s pediatric

Nassau CSEA

ss
AFL-CIO

for Nassau’s
Families

intensive care unit.

“Who would have
taken in the 400 babies
born here to indigent
mothers last year with
no insurance?”

Duffe asked.

Two weeks prior to
the rally both
Wallace and
CSEA Long
Island Region
President Gloria
Moran participated
in lengthy budget
hearings at the
county seat in
Mineola. In a
packed hearing
room till 1
a.m., the
Nassau Board
of Supervisors
heard from
CSEA officials,
senior citizens,
religious
groups and
other
community
organizations opposed to the privatization of
NCMC and the A. Holly Patterson Geriatric facility.

CSEA is building a coalition of families, union and community
organizations in support of the medical center.

The medical center situation is just one of CSEA’s concerns
about contracting out in Nassau County. For years the union has
raised concerns about wasteful county practices in contracting
with for-profit vendors over work that could be handled better and
more cost-effectively by county employees.

a

Mi

CENTER

HUNDREDS OF CSEA MEMBERS PROTEST the waste of contracting-out
public services in Nassau County. Among the union's concerns is a
proposal to privatize the Nassau County Medical Center.

g fi January 1993 3
LOCAL GOVERNMENT NEWS|

| s s .

CSEA's highest priority

Alarmed by increasing acts of violence against front-line public
employees, CSEA has prepared a guide booklet on workplace security for
distribution to state and local government managers statewide.

CSEA is following up the distribution by meeting with public employers
across the state to assess worksite risks and implement steps to improve
security.

The issue of safety in the workplace took on a sense of urgency
following the murder of four CSEA-represented Schuyler County social
service workers in October.

“Securing public worksites is CSEA’s most important priority,” CSEA
President Joe McDermott said. “Our members are facing on-the-job
violence in cities, suburban and rural areas. It’s happening everywhere
and it's unrealistic for anyone to think ‘it can’t happen here.”

CSEA's guide booklet, “Security in the Workplace,” covers areas such
as in-house security procedures, appropriate training, structural
modifications and the range of security systems and devices that are
available. The union recommends site by site assessments as to what

security measures are appropriate while stressing that adequate
protective measures do not necessarily require costly capital investments.

McDermott offered the resources and expertise of CSEA’s Safety and
Health Department and Employee Assistance Program to assist public
employers in developing appropriate security.

Additionally, CSEA is seeking improvements in the Public Employee
Safety and Health (PESH) standards to include workplace security.
Currently the PESH standards do not specifically address security. CSEA
is seeking an immediate emergency standard through the state Labor
Department.

CSEA has sought safety improvements through labor-management
initiatives for years, and many public employers have beefed up security,
such as installing metal detectors, posting security guards or installing
plexiglass partitions to safeguard people. But the Watkins Glen murders
in Schuyler County emphasized the need for stronger actions.

he
place

Prepared by
Ronald P Nielsen, WSO-CSM

TMENT
CSEA OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH DEPAR’

lew York State Occupational

the Né
Produced through a grant nd Education Program, 6952

‘Safety and Health Training and E

1992 OSEA. ne

Workplaces where public employees and the public come
together in direct contact are increasingly dangerous places. The
problem of inadequate security is widespread, involving hundreds,
perhaps thousands, of state and local government worksites.

Thousands of public employees are in potential danger at any given
time.

lots and taken other measures to improve safety.

CSEA Herkimer County Unit President Sherri Morris-Schiebel
said the slaying of four Schuyler County DSS workers in October
brought back memories of a 1984 incident in Herkimer County
when a man shot and killed his girlfriend and then himself in front
to terrified DSS employees.

And that’s why improved workplace safety is one of CSEA’s
highest priorities.

Take the Nassau County Department of Social Services facility,
for instance. CSEA members who work there say it's a very
dangerous place.

“It’s like a war zone,” DSS Safety Chairman Mike Timmons
says,

“We are threatened and everything, and you may get killed
here,” say DSS receptionists Mary Bryant and Esther Williams.

Chairs in the waiting area are nailed to the floor to prevent
frequent incidents of clients using them as weapons against county
workers and other clients. An angry client once threw a computer
terminal at an employee who had to be treated at a hospital for
injuries. This is the same office where CSEA member Michael
Caposi was stabbed by another distraught client and was so
traumatized by the incident that he could not return to work at
DSS.

“People are coming out of mental hospitals and jails and then
coming here,” said CSEA Unit President Bob Caldwell, who has
consistently requested metal detectors be installed as part of an
expanded security program.

In Madison County in central New York, the county has
recently limited building access, installed a metal detector,
stationed a sheriffs deputy in the reception area and plans to
install panic buttons and special locking doors.

“The county administration was quick to respond with new
safety steps to protect our members. We credit them for their
timely and professional response,” CSEA Madison County Local
827 President Roslie Tallman said.

In Herkimer County the county has limited building access,
purchased security mirrors, removed name signs in the parking

“Employees here are more cautious now,” Morris-Schiebel said.
“They realize a lot of the new security measures are for their
protection, not their inconvenience.”

= Fee

z PHILO support ~] f
—— |

a HEARINGS
WAITING Row

{
|

_

NASSAU COUNTY Department of Social Services employees are
exposed to all forms of physical violence from clients. Employees
have petitioned Nassau County Executive Thomas Gulotta to
construct plexiglass partitions around exposed work areas and for
more police presence throughout the building.

4 January 1993 gZ ‘

LOCAL GOVERNMENT NEWS

G In Niagara County

1 Talks could end contracting-out plan

LOCKPORT - A year-long fight to avert
the privatization of Mount View Health
Facility, Niagara County's nursing home,
may soon be won. The county has agreed to
talks that may cancel privatization.

“We're hopeful the talks will bring about
the end of calls for privatizing such a
valuable public facility,” CSEA Political
Action Coordinator Roger Sherrie said.

He was referring to a joint agreement
signed by CSEA Labor Relations Specialist
Mark Jurenovich, Niagara County
Legislature Chair Lee Simonson, AFSCME
Area Representative Frank DiStefano and
AFSCME Local 182 President Rosemary
Roberts.

The agreement postpones for three
months any attempts to sell the facility
while serious discussions are held by all

three sides on ways to make Mount View
more self-sufficient.

“This dialogue will be intended to
increase labor-management cooperation,
reduce taxpayer subsidies, improve
employee morale and enhance patient
services,” said the joint statement.

“While all agree that the forthcoming
discussions will be challenging and may
require artful compromise, this statement
represents a good faith effort of all involved
to enter this dialogue with a sincere desire
and effort to keep Mount View a public
facility.”

“This represents a real turn of events
from a year ago when legislators predicted
the home would cost the county $2 million
for 1992,” said Linda Gibbons, Niagara
County Employees Unit president. “I think

it’s a real tribute to the tenacity and ability
of Roger Sherrie, who stuck in there when
almost no one thought it could be saved
and kept plugging away. He helped us to
show the value of keeping Mount View
public.

“With close to half of the budget’s $2
million remaining in Mount View's account
at year’s end, the facility budget for 1993
will be reduced to $600,000,” she said.

While things are looking better for Mount
View's future, Sherrie warns the battle is
not yet won.

“The picture is much brighter than it was
a year ago, but we must continue to stay
positive and work toward achieving our goal
through these talks,” Sherrie said.
“Hopefully, we'll be able to celebrate a new
beginning within three months.”

Alban

y County workers still

angry over budget ‘deal’

ALBANY - CSEA Albany County Highway
Department members are angry with the
political deal which has supposedly resolved
a long, bitter county budget battle.

The highway department is hit hard ina
county budget calling for the layoffs of 80
full-time and 30 part-time workers. The
budget deal was cut after the county
executive extended the effective date of the
layoffs from Dec. 31 to March 31.

“We're not satisfied, not satisfied at all,”

CSEA Capital Region President C. Allen Mead

said. “In good faith our members attended
many meetings on the proposed budget with
both Democrats and Republicans, showing
them where savings could be generated, jobs
and services saved. But 80 members still
face layoffs after a 90-day extension. We
want jobs saved, not extended.”

What is upsetting the workers most is
that the politicians were able to save five
political jobs in the county executive's office

but couldn't find a way to save more of the

workers’ positions.

“This isn’t over,” Mead said. “We are going
to continue to fight to save more jobs. We're
in bargaining for all four of our units and any
money the county asks us to generate in cost
savings will have to be directly assigned to

saving additional CSEA bargaining unit
positions, not political ones.”

CSEA fights
layoffs in
Schoharie

County

By Daniel X. Campbell
CSEA Communications Associate

SCHOHARIE - Given a choice of
giving back a hard-earned 5 percent
salary increase or facing layoffs,
Schoharie County Local 848 members
voted overwhelmingly to stand up
against the unilateral demand of the
county Board of Supervisors.

As The Public Sector went to press,
Schoharie County was in the process of
passing a budget with a 24 percent tax
increase coupled with a layoff threat of
20 full-time workers and two part-time
employees spread throughout a
workforce of approximately 320.

The layoffs would hurt the county's
highway and social services
departments the most. Taxpayers will
need those services more as the winter
deepens and the local economy is hit by
the layoffs of county workers.

In what must be considered one of
the most trying weeks in Schoharie
County labor relations history, the
Schoharie County workers spent time
on the informational picket line, at a
public hearing on the original proposal

During the many public hearings on the
proposed budget, CSEA members informed
the various parties of the union’s willingness
to save tax dollars by ending double
insurance coverage situations through a buy
out. Initially, the county executive's budget
director believed savings which could be
generated through this method could save a
substantial number of positions.

“They can’t take that money without
negotiations and we won't negotiate it
without the savings being used to save our
members’ positions,” Mead said.

for a 59 percent tax increase and at the
bargaining table and union ballot box.

“We're in double trouble,” CSEA Local
848 President Bill Betz said. “We're
taxpayers here and we work here, too.
We want to help the county but we want
to be sure that our members are
protected. The board wanted us to make
up our minds on a salary cut while they
still weren't sure about the real budget
tax increase and the total number of
layoffs.”

g A , January 1993 5
LOCAL GOVERNMENT NEWS

Ulster County employees are

24, Bridging inflationary costs

WARWARSING — Construction costs increase by
i=] leaps and bounds everywhere, but Ulster County
employees are saving taxpayers money this year.
That's because county employees are doing the
infrastructure repair work instead of for-profit

contractors.

Wie are one of the few counties in the state doing

: Sapeaniior

Jim Cannizzaro”

inspect a
bridge truss.

POMONA — Rockland County has
been cited for numerous violations of

its own bridge work,” County Bridge Supervisor Jim
Cannizzaro said. “Some small repair work is done in
most counties, but we’re doing major construction.”

Bridge crews often have to shut down an access
road for days while they repair a bridge,
inconveniencing many people. Despite that, recent
letters to Ulster County officials after work on a

bridge in Phonecia was completed were
loverwhelmingly complimentary.
“Grateful residents now have a safe way
ome,” one writer said.
“Work progressed swiftly and in record
= jtime,” another resident said. “I don’t believe a
| private firm could have done it any better or
faster.”

“Thanks for the miracle,” said the
supervisor of a nearby town. “I want to
icommend all the workers for their diligence,

hard work and courtesy to the residents."
‘| Department of Public Works Commissioner
(Thomas Hart said training and using DPW
_jworkers to repair the bridges is saving the
icounty about two-thirds of what it would cost
ito contract out the work.

Hart, who has experience building bridges,
said he was happy to pass his knowledge on
to county employees.

“They understand the wherewithall of how
ito go about it and what I want accomplished,”
he said.

a “We proved we can do it,” Cannizzaro said.

“Ulster County will set the pace.”

In dangerous conditions, Rockland workers are

state health standards for the manner in
which county environmental health aides
(EHAs) were required to decapitate
animals suspected of having rabies.

The EHAs are required to decapitate

Forced to face ee

By Anita Manley
CSEA Communications Associate

that problems had not been properly addressed by the immediate
supervisors.” Raetz said. “We cited lack of training and personal

already dead animals so the skulls can be
sent to the state Department of Health
labs in Albany for analysis. Most counties
in the state contract out decapitations to
veterinarians.

(PESH) inspector cited Rockland County
after CSEA filed a complaint charging the

NEW CITY - Some workers in Rockland County are being forced
to face the deadly rabies virus as they hack off the heads of
animals in primitive conditions with improper tools and Uttle or no
Protective equipment.

Determined to end the potentially risky practice. CSEA is
fighting with every resource available. The union has gone to court
to force the county to stop ordering the environmental health aides
(EHAs) to do the decapitations. The state Department of Labor has
already inspected the worksite based on CSEA’s complaint; its
report is pending.

‘And CSEA has filed a grievance because the

protective gear.”

Most New York state counties use veterinartans to perform the
decapitations. Rockland County officials said they don’t hire one
because of budget constraints. Raetz said.

The EHAs decapitate animals in a 15-by-18 foot fenced-in area
behind an animal shelter. They are expected to use tools such as.
pruning shears, hacksaws and hunting knives. They previously
used an ax. The county recently issued the EHAs new knives, a
sharpening stone and a cutting block.

Rather than a sterile stainless steel table. the EHAs bend over

A Public Employee Safety and Health

employees were forced to work in
primative conditions with improper tools
and little or no protective equipment. An
article about the situation in the
November edition of The Public Sector
drew an unusually large number of
responses from readers concerned about
the conditions under which the
employees were required to perform the
grim task.

“The (Rockland County) Health
Department's transmission prevention
policy was deficient,” the PESH report stated. The report also
ordered the county to provide employees with proper equipment
“to protect them against blood or other body fluids that potentially
contain the rabies virus.”

The PESH inspector ordered the county to provide training by a
veterinarian and proper tools and work surfaces, which the county
has since provided.

CSEA also presented its case at a grievance hearing as this
issue of The Public Sector went to press. Unit President Caroline
Osinga filed the grievance charging the practice violates the safety
and health clause in the CSEA/Rockland County contract.

that this was not part of the

violates the safety and health clause in

t
EHAs decapitate the animals suspected
having rabies so the skulls can be sent to the
Department of Health labs in Albany for anal
CSEA is fighting the assignments because,
are not In the EHAs" job description; worse,

4s easily contracted through contact with i
animals. and the conditions under which {

“CSEA will show that Rockland County has been
negligent in failing to provide a work environment that
serves the comfort, well-being and safety of its employees,”

said CSEA Attorney Myron Mandel, who is handling the
grievance,

While some of CSEA’s concerns have been partially resolved
as a result of the union complaints to the health deparment,
CSEA Labor Relations Specialist Annette Raetz said she is not

satisfied with the steps taken thus far by the county.

Raetz said the three workers involved have now been provided
with one protective face mask and an apron that they share, a
steel table, tools and some training. Previously the employees used
such inappropriate tools as pruning shears, hacksaws, hunting
knives and axes to decapitate animals on a cement slab that
doubles as a door stoop in an area behind an animal shelter.

“None of these changes happened until the union started to
make noise,” Raetz said.

“What they have done is not sufficient,” Raetz said. “They
should have surgical masks and individual protective eye gear.
What the county should do is hire a trained medical technician to
do the work.”

Raetz also objects to the employees being forced to work
outdoors, especially in extreme weather.

6 January 1993 g é

LOCAL GOVERNMENT NEWS

School Dist

rict Affairs

Fumigation results stink

CSEA files complaint over unsafe practices in Eastchester high school

EASTCHESTER - CSEA has filed a
complaint with the state Department of
Labor (DOL) over unsafe conditions at a
school after it was fumigated.

While waiting for the DOL report, CSEA
members are fuming themselves after the
Eastchester School District tried to blame
an employee for the problems.

The district hired a contractor to
fumigate the high school on a Sunday, but
when custodians opened the school the
next day, it was still a mess.

“It was a nightmare,” Unit President Roy
West said. “They used so much liquid that
even after 13 hours the building was full of
puddles and an oily film, and the place
smelled bad.”

Despite the conditions, school district
officials opened the building. After students
and. teachers complained of nausea; rashes,
disorientation, asthma attacks and eye
irritation, West said, the district closed the
building. Then officials ordered the
maintenance crew to clean up the mess,

“They gave us no protective equipment

Education,

By Anita Manley
CSEA Communications Associate

WAPPINGERS FALLS - If there is good
that can come from pain, then there is a
lesson to be learned from tragedy. Arlene
and Bill Jacobs share their pain and
tragedy to help others learn 7
about the consequences that
come from drinking and driving.

They know this first hand. Six
years ago, their son Chris was
killed by a drunk driver. Their
older son Billy was severely
injured and today is still in the
process of recovery. Two other
teens were also killed in the
same accident.

“This is my therapy,” said
Arlene, a library clerk with the
Wappingers Central School
District and member of
Dutchess County Educational
Local 867.

Now active with the Dutchess
County Chapter of R.I.D.
(Remove Intoxicated Drivers),
Jacobs is helping other families
to cope with their own tragedies
and at the same time is
impressing upon lawmakers the
importance of the enforcement of
tough legislation to deter drivers
who drink.

It’s not easy to re-live the
memories, Jacobs said, but if it
helps to instill a fear that stops

now works

and we didn’t even know what the stuff
was,” West said. “Our people started to
clean and some of them became ill.”

When the district re-opened the building
the next day, West complained to the
Westchester County Department of Health
which sent an inspector. He immediately
closed the building. Meanwhile, CSEA
Health and Safety Specialist Dan Morra
filed a Public Employee Safety and Health
complaint with DOL.

Finally, the district hired a professional
cleaning company, but the health
department still would not clear the
building for occupancy.

School officials then asked CSEA
members to clean once again. West
insisted on and obtained protective
equipment for the custodians and a written
assurance from the health department that
the building was safe.

A week later, the building opened once
again.

West, meanwhile, expects the district to
be cited for numerous health violations.

support hel

even one person from drinking and driving,
it is well worth it.

Jacobs described some of the calls she
has received since her sons’ accident. One
was from a mother who showed a
newspaper article about the 1986 accident
to her son, an occasional social drinker.

CSEA MEMBER Arlene Jacobs with her son Billy. He was injured in
a drunk driving accident that claimed the life of his brother. Arlene

with Remove Intoxicated Drivers.

Many school district employees are still
complaining about health problems.

Tronically, the district is now trying to
blame a CSEA member, claiming that a
custodian did not properly ventilate the
building, West said.

The school district's course of action “was
totally inappropriate,” West told the school
board. “Had they responded properly to the
situation right away, I never would have
been forced to go to the Department of
Health.”

West said he will establish a Health and
Safety Committee “to prevent the possibility
of this ever happening again.”

CSEA Labor Relations Specialist Shawn
McCollister praised West for his action.

“There was a lot of confusion and a lot of
unanswered questions,” he said. “Roy's
intuitiveness and diligence in handling the
situation and protecting the members were
excellent. He communicated constantly
with the membership and pestered
management into getting a potentially
dangerous situation resolved.

p her cope

Other calls come from parents whose
children have survived accidents, like a
parent whose daughter was in a coma.

Recently, a student at the high school her
sons attended asked Jacobs to speak as
part of a drunk driving project he was
coordinating. He videotaped her talking
about the accident and the work
of RID. Billy was also featured
in the tape.

“I told the kids how Billy had
| to re-learn to breathe, eat, walk

and go to the bathroom,” she
said.

As a RID activist, Jacobs has
been involved in community
awareness and education
projects. One project the group
is proud of is a Victim's Aid
Package distributed to families
at the hospital. It contains
information to help families
through a crisis by telling them

just what steps to take when a
4 loved one is involved in a drunk
driving accident - victim's
rights, local resources and even
a map of the hospital.

RID's goals are to strengthen
and enforce drunk driving laws.

The chapter sponsors a
Memorial Day Service held in
front of {he Department of
Motor Vehicles in Poughkeepsie.
They display a banner with the
names of victims of drunk
driving.

gZ ‘ January 1993 7

LOCAL GOVERNMENT NEWS

No contract means a
bleak holiday season

PORT JEFFERSON STATION - Contemplating
a bleak holiday with no contract settlement in
sight, more than 300 CSEA Comsewogue
School District employees and their supporters
hit the streets, demanding to be heard by the
School Board.

“I can’t predict what's going to happen, but
this was the biggest demonstration we've ever
had,” CSEA Comsewogue School District Unit
President Lucy Jackson said.

“The board is holding the cards, but they got
a look at how many people we had there and it
was terrific!”

A 24-year employee who has been on CSEA
negotiating teams for 19 years, Jackson's
request to address the board was flatly denied.

“We packed the room with CSEA members.
Then the board went into executive session and
refused to hear from CSEA,” Labor Relations
Specialist John Clahane said. Calling the
board’s behavior regrettable, Clahane
maintained that the Comsewogue School Board
has an obligation not just to CSEA members,
but to the whole community to let them know
what's going on and hear both sides.

Local newspapers carried CSEA's complete
two page statement in stories about the board's
refusal to allow the union to be heard, Jackson
said.

“With the press coverage we received, I think
this will work to the union's advantage because
now the people in the district will all have had
the opportunity to hear the union’s side of this
dispute,” she said.

Negotiations were scheduled to resume in
mid-December.

CSEA’s efforts put
member back to work

MALONE - After more than two years of
legal battling, CSEA Franklin County Local
817 member Jay Shanty says he’s glad to
be back to work, and has CSEA to thank
for getting him there.

Shanty, a medium equipment operator
for the Village of Malone, recently returned
to his job with full back pay of more than
$20,000. CSEA won an arbitration for him,
arguing he was unjustly fired.

Shanty lost his job in April 1990 after
being disciplined for insubordination and
misconduct. CSEA said he was fired
because of his union activities

According to CSEA Labor Relations
Specialist Charles Bird, the union and the
village agreed before a PERB hearing officer
to settle the case with binding arbitration.
Shanty’s case went to PERB after the
union filed an improper practice charge
claiming that Shanty was disciplined for
his union involvement.

A shop steward and CSEA unit
secretary, Shanty also had a grievance
pending when he was fired.

Shanty said he was fired after he took
some pictures on the job of practices he
believed were unethical. The subsequent
suspension and termination were over “a
bogus charge” of misconduct and
insubordination, he said.

He immediately turned to CSEA Franklin

County Local 817 President Mary Hanna
for help.

Hanna said Shanty was anguished over
his termination, which she termed
“unjust.” She told Shanty that everything
would be okay, that CSEA would help him
get his job back and to just “hang in there.”
She's glad that advice paid off, she said.

“He is a good and conscientious worker,
as well as a concerned union officer,” she
said. “I'm very pleased that we came
through for him and that he stuck with it
through the long, frustrating haul.”

During the two years it took to win his
job back, Shanty was forced to go on
unemployment and was out of work for a
while before going back to his previous
employer. He got a “raw deal,” he said, but
CSEA helped him through it.

“It was unjust, but at least CSEA was
always there for me. I couldn't have done it
without the union,” he said. “Mary gave me
a lot of moral support; she kept me going,
Charlie, too. I learned a lot about the
system and how the union backs you up. I
can’t thank them enough.”

In his award, the arbitrator said the
village did not have just cause to dismiss
Shanty, noted that there was insufficient
evidence to establish any charges of
misconduct or insubordination and
ordered him reinstated with full back pay.

CSEA ROCKLAND COUNTY UNIT members brave the cold and dark to protest
the lack of a contract. Their last contract expired Dec. 31, 1991.

8 January 1993 gZ
2 e s

THE PUBLIC

A message from CSEA President Joe McDermott

Let's get to work on
CSEA's legislative goals

CSEA is already preparing to build on last year’s success in the
state Legislature. Our agenda (see page 11) is as broad-based as
ever, but three important pieces of legislation that affect each and
every member will be at the top of our agenda.

We must fight this half-baked idea that hiring for-profit private
vendors saves money and makes sense. It does neither. CSEA is
determined to put our opposition to such irresponsible policy into
law.

We are submitting a bill to the state Legislature which would
make it more difficult for governments and school districts to
contract out services that rightfully belong in the public sector. If
passed, the law would require governments to prove the alleged
effectiveness of selling out to a for-profit vendor and would require
more responsibility from that vendor.

I am convinced that given a fair comparison, public employees
will come out on top, providing better, more responsible service at
a better cost. All the while, government maintains direct control
over the provision of public service.

Fairness is at the heart of another CSEA legislative priority:
permanent cost of living adjustments (COLA) for public employee
retirees. All public employee retirees are suffering the ravages of
higher costs for everything from food, clothing and shelter to ever-
increasing health care costs.

We need to fight for permanent COLA for retirees not only
because they need help in keeping up with inflation, but also
because they earned a fair and equitable retirement. It’s
unfortunate we have to fight in the Legislature for COLA when it
should be a matter of simple common decency, but we do — and
we will.

Speaking of pensions, CSEA will continue its [P
campaign to give
the NYS Employee

GENERAL NEWS

Retirement System a new Board
of Trustees, with public employee
representation, to oversee its
business and investment of
retirement system funds.

The system now has a sole
trustee, the state comptroller. The
money he invests is our money, ff
and we should have some say in
those investments. CSEA has
been calling for creation of a Board of Trustees with employee
representation for several years, and we will continue until we win.

We face tremendous obstacles in winning our legislative
objectives, but we can do it. Last year, with the help of hundreds of
activists and a complex grassroots effort, we convinced the
Legislature to pass into law Local Government Agency Shop. Again
the odds were great, and we had to fight for a decade, but we stuck
to our guns, and we triumphed.

I can’t emphasize enough the importance each and every CSEA
member played in that victory — and I can’t emphasize enough
that we need your support and activism again this year.

Your presence alone is powerful: Legislators listen when we tell
them we represent 265,000 public employees and retirees. But you
are far more powerful when you join the fray. You can make phone
calls, write letters, work with your local’s Political Action
Committee. The more CSEA members we have, the better off we
are. But the more active members we
i have, the stronger we are.

SOLE TRus TEE iY We face great obstacles, and we
iN need all the strength we can get. Get
M involved, and help CSEA improve all
7 our futures.

TARGETS

January 1993

9
General

News

INDEX

Page 11
CSEA lines up its legislative agenda.

Pages 12-13
A comprehensive round-up of CSEA’s
important news in 1992.

Page 14

CSEA Local and Unit officers elected
last year took advantage of extensive
training in CSEA’s Officer Institutes.

Page 15
A CSEA member helps save the life of

member.

Page 16

covers important issues of workplace
safety and political achievements.

two young girls, nieces of another CSEA

The annual CSEA Women's Conference

CSEA Southern Region III office

FISHKILL — CSEA Southern Region
members have a bright new efficient office
to go to on union business.

CSEA replaced rented offices in Fishkill
and moved into a new 7,500-square-foot
building located about four miles south of

Notice of Election

CSEA regional officer

elections will be

conducted this year

All CSEA regional officer positions will

be up for clection this year

CSE statewide Board of Directors
members are ected to adopt a re
officers election schedule at, the E
Jan. 14 meeting. A complete election
schedule and listing of eligibility

3oard’s

requirements as approved by the Board of

Directors will be published in the next
edition of The Public Sector

Under CSEA‘s open election
procedures, any member in good s
can have his or her name placed ona
yallot by obtaining the required number

of CSEA member signatures on an official

petition form.

Gaming! pia

Long Island public employees demonstrate
their value in storm emergency response

As this edition of The Public Sector
went to press, CSEA state and local
government members on Long Island
were hard at work dealing with the
aftermath of the N’oreaster that struck
the region in mid-December.

The storm, which weather experts
say was possibly the worst to ever hit
the Long Island and Metropolitan New
York City area, caused dramatic
flooding, coastal erosion, and
disruption of public services while
wreaking havoc on thousands of lives.

10 January 1993 ee j

sional

tanding

Editor's note: The Public Sector regularly
publishes a summary of actions taken by
CSEA's Board of Directors at the Board's
official meetings. The summary is prepared
by CSEA Statewide Secretary Irene Carr for
the information of union members.

In official business at its most recent
meeting, the board:

¢ Adopted a “CSEA Boycott Policy” which
states that to promote “a united position in
support of our brothers and sisters in the
labor movement, the President of CSEA
shall advise regions, local and units of our
participation in any boycott, job action or
demonstration” and the “Regions, locals
and units which are asked to participate, in
the name of CSEA, in boycotts, job actions
or demonstrations shall contact the Office
of the President for advice and direction”;

Placed in administratorship the
Onondaga County Probation Unit of Local
834;

¢ Added to the Region I political action
committee Robert Blumhagen and Francis
Celentano;

¢ Granted charters to Service America,

Public employees have played
an integral role in helping people
put lives back together, preventing
further damage and bringing
communities back to normalcy.

The tireless dedication and
caring of CSEA members is a
clear demonstration of the value
of public employees.

The Public Sector will provide
full coverage of the Long Island
clean-up effort in the February
edition.

owe. way stacey

“New CSEA Southern Region office opened

the old office.
The new address is:
735 State Route 52
Beacon, New York 12508
The new telephone number is:
914-831-1000

Summary of Board of Directors meeting

Inc. (Local 721), Brookhaven Materials
Recycling Facility (Local 722) and NYS
Division of the Lottery (Local 661);

¢ Dissolved Crouse Community Center
Local 720;

¢ Created the position of Project Director
in the Office of Field Operations and
approved hiring of two additional organizers
who will work out of Headquarters;

© Designated Lake Placid as the site of the
1995 Annual Delegates Meeting;

e Added to the Region II political action
committee Sammy Losato, John Marchese
and Claudette Sullivan; and

¢ Proposed that the union's 1993
legislative agenda include the elimination of
all Mini-Public Employment Relations
Boards.

Questions concerning this summary of
actions taken by CSEA's statewide Board
of Directors should be directed to CSEA
statewide Secretary Irene Carr, CSEA
Headquarters, 143 Washington Avenue,
Albany, NY 12210, 1-800-342-4146 or
518-434-0191.

ee oe eo le
Se aS S&S ES &

GENERAL NEWS

Political Action

CSEA sets legislative goals

ALBANY — CSEA is gearing up for the 1993 session of the state Family and Medical Leave
Legislature. Under this legislation, employers would guarantee employees
In 1992, CSEA achieved one of its highest priorities: local their jobs while allowing them to take time off for specific family
government agency shop. Fresh from that victory, CSEA’s Political and medical situations.
Action Committee has compiled an ambitious legislative agenda.

While contining to press for important goals, such as pension Dependents Health Insurance
supplementation and permanent agency shop, CSEA will pursue a This bill requires that unremarried surviving spouses and
variety of legislation to improve the working conditions and lives of | dependents be able to purchase health insurance at one quarter of
its members. the full cost. 4

A list of many of the 1993 legislative goals follows.
Inpatient /Outpatient Staff-to-Patient Ratios
Agency Shop This bill would establish ratios of staff
This bill would make agency shop to patients in Office of Mental Health.
permanent and uniform for all public
employees. School Issues
Elimination of School Bus Standees

Agency Shop Extension This bill would make it unlawful to

This legislation would extend current operate a school bus to or from school or q
agency shop fee provisions for two school activities with any passenger
years. standing.

Unemployment Compensation for
Education Support Employees
Under this bill, New York state would
offer unemployment benefits between
academic years or terms to non-
instructional school employees.

Contracting Out

This bill would limit the conditions
under which governments can contract
out to private vendors.

Independent Hearing Officers
This bill would ensure the

appointment of independent hearing

officers in disciplinary proceedings.

Contingency Budget

This legislation would provide school
districts a way to adopt budgets that
include cafeteria and transprotation

Injunctive Relief
services without voter approval.

This bill would allow public employee
unions to apply to the courts for
injunctive relief for an employee facing
improper practice charges.

Retiree Issues

Pension Supplementation, Permanent
COLA

This bill would extend present
supplemental retirement benefits,
increase percentages and provide annual
cost of living adjustments to the pension
allowance of retired public employees.

Right to Union Representation

This bill would give public employees
the right to have a union representative
present during informal interrogations,
investigations and inquiries by their
employers.
Health Insurance For Retirees

This bill would prohibit municipalities
and the state from reducing the health
insurance benefits of retirees.

Older Workers Benefit Protection Act

Federal law requires New York state
to eliminate disparity for employee
disability retirement and death
benefits. Under current law, benefits
diminish based on the employee's age.
This bill would require a level playing
field be put in place for all employees
regardless of age.

Board of Trustees

This bill would create a Board of
Trustees with employee representation
for the Employees Retirement System.
The system now has as sole trustee the
state comptroller.
Abolish Mini-PERBS

This bill would abolish mini-PERBS
other than the New York City Office of
Collective Bargaining.

Tier Shift /Retroactive Retirement
Credit

This bill would establish an
administrative review procedure to allow
credit for previous service and
assignment of retroactive dates of
membership.

NDT Safety

This bill provides minimum
safeguards and protections for video
display terminal operators, such as
alternative work schedules, protection
for pregnant employees and general
specifications for VDT terminals and
furniture.

South African Divestment

This bill would require the divestment
of retirement system funds invested in
entities doing business in or with the
Republic of South Africa over three years.

g fj January 1993 1 1

GENERAL NEWS

GENERAL NEWS

Our 82nd consecutive year of progress working for public employees

Jan. 1, 1992, dawned in that curious
combination of problems and promise that so
often confront public employees. Throughout the
year, CSEA worked diligently to eliminate as
many of the problems as possible while trying to
fulfill the promises.There were successes and
failures in both areas but the effort and
commitment were always present, always
intense. Here's a look back at some of the
activities and achievements CSEA was involved
in during 1992.

JANUARY

As 1992 began CSEA was locked in fierce
combat with state DOT management over
implementation of the new dangerous state
policy of one person plowing. It was a battle that
would rage throughout the winter and
throughout the year and carry over unresolved
into 1993. At the county and local government
levels, CSEA members ravaged by staff
reductions and using aging, inadequate
equipment that local budgets could not replace
handled the worst of winter against all odds....
Nassau County officials approved a budget
calling for thousands of layoffs, furloughs and
tax increases.... In Westchester County CSEA
members said “no” to county demands to give
up contractual raises or face layoffs.... CSEA
mounts campaign to warn members against
growing epidemic of rabies in state.... Former
state labor commissioner Thomas Hartnett
named CSEA's chief lobbist.... David Holland,
son of Nassau County Corrections Officer Daniel
Holland, a member of Local 830, named winner
of $20,000 AFSCME Jerry Clark Memorial
Scholarship.... CSEA slams state’s shameful
indifference as mental hygiene services takes
brunt of state’s mindless budget cutting...
Members of Willard Psychiatric Center Local
428 picket Gov. Cuomo'’s visit to central New
York.... Fact-finding process in motion in
CSEA/NYS contract dispute.... AFSCME
executive board endorses Bill Clinton for
President, following in footsteps of CSEA which
announced support for Clinton a month earlier.

FEBRUARY

State Court of Appeals rules the lag payroll
imposed on siate’s court employees in 1991 is
unconstitutional.... CSEA OCA members OK
negotiated agreement that prevents layoffs for
remainder of fiscal year.... CSEA, Local 447
officials and members and management work
together to help Brooklyn Developmental Center
retain certification for $25 million in federal
funding.... CSEA Local 610 members respond
to dangerous PCB emergency triggered by
transformer fire at SUNY New Paltz.... CSEA
President Joe McDermott calls Business
Council of New York State proposal to alter, or
even abolish, the civil service system “an
appalling, thinly disguised plot to strip away the
rights and dignity of workers and give
management dictatorial powers.”.... CSEA
Executive Vice President Danny Donohue
appointed chair of an AFSCME committee to
study political, economic, religious and labor
situation in Northern Ireland.... CSEA unveils
union's 1992 legislative package; biggest priority
will be fighting for adequate spending and
revenue in the 1992-93 budget.... 500 CSEA
activists participate in CSEA’s annual Women’s
Conference, grappling with tough issues facing
working women.... CSEA retiree Lee Pound
named recipient of Irene Carr Leadership Award
for 1992.... CSEA gears up to fight threats of
massive layoffs in Westchester and Nassau
CSEA's Solid Waste Task Force
state lawmakers to stop passing the
buck and address the growing landfill crisis.

1 2 _Manuary 1993

199

MARCH

Wayne County CSEA members refused to
reopen their contract for givebacks. In the end
they received their wage increases without any
layoffs.... Hundreds of Erie County CSEA
members marched on the county legislature to
protest threats of service reductions and layoffs;
county's sales tax extended to lessen crisis...
CSEA campaign in Montgomery County pays
off by convincing county legislators to increase a
tax cap and prevent layoffs.... CSEA wins first
round of battle to kill a lag payroll for Cayuga
County employees.... Union spearheads
campaign for investigation of asbestos removal
problems at three Saratoga County office
buildings.... CSEA fires back at state Senate
advisory panel suggestion that state sell its
Thruway and major airports. “Whenever a dumb
idea comes along, you can almost bet that a
politician will hatch it or latch onto it,” CSEA
President Joe McDermott said. “Take
privatization of public services; privatization is a
dumb idea!”.... CSEA places 37 members on
ballots as candidates for delegates in
Democratic primary.... CSEA launches a new
Home Buyer's Program to enable more members
to own homes.... Hundreds of workers fall ill at
Building 8 at state office complex in Albany....
Laundry Supervisor Frances King held hostage,
later released, in prison incident in Western
New York.... CSEA Local 413 members
demonstrated to protest latest outbreak of
violence at Manhattan Psychiatric Center....
Angry over threats of facility closings,
understaffing and safety concerns, hundreds of
employees turn out to rally at Willard and
Harlem Valley Psychiatric Centers.

APRIL

Several CSEA state locals conduct series of
informational picket lines in Monroe County
area warning of dangers of layoffs and program
cuts.... Progress grinds forward on prolonged
CSEA-state contract talks.... CSEA officials
brand OMH policies “immoral” at state
legislative hearings.... CSEA report reveals
occupational injuries resulted in 338,561 lost
workdays in OMH and OMRDD last year; union
says going to work at OMH and OMRDD
facilities can be like entering a combat zone....
CSEA protested increased use of inmate labor
at state correctional facilities in testimony
before legislative hearing.... Hundreds of CSEA
activists flood the state Capitol and Legislative
Office Building to lobby for passage of union
bills.... CSEA links state's one-person plowing
program with fatal plow-car accident. “A stark
reminder of what happens when safety is
compromised to save a buck,” CSEA says...
Orange County DSS employee stabbed by
client; union pushes for safety improvements....
CSEA honors three members killed on-the-
job in past year during Workers Memorial Day
ceremonies... CSEA develops infectious disease
training for county employees at risk.... Layoffs
in Nassau County had a tragic consequence as
a DSS worker apparently committed suicide
after getting layoff notice...CSEA opens a
campaign to prevent sale of Oneida County's
skilled nursing facility.... CSEA credited with
providing thrust that propelled Bill Clinton to
Democratic primary win in New York state.

The effort,
commitmen
always there

MAY

Tentative agreement reached on four-yea
contract covering more than 100,000 state
workers after 17 months of negotiating... S'
Cortland Local 605 members rally to protest
cuts in higher education funding.... Members
block private contractors from meeting in
Albany to protest state plans to privatize new
labs and research center.... CSEA offers The
Buyer's Edge, a new benefit to save members
money on major purchases.... Town of
Middletown Highway Department members
serve their community in more ways than one;
nine of 16 workers also are volunteer |
firefighters... Under intense pressure from
CSEA, Montgomery County supervisors back
down on planned sales of county infirmary....
CSEA Hicksville Unit members reach 1
agreement that enables teachers aides to
become teacher assistants.... CSEA issues call
for changes in state and federal tax policies
a giant step toward turning economy around...
Ulster County employees receiving training
under special grant to learn how to mediate
disputes to improve working climate. |

JUNE

Cayuga County co-workers plant a tree in
memory of Sabina Kulakowski, a county DSS
employee murdered by a man who made
repeated death threats against DSS
employees.... CPR training came in handy
when Ulster County Local 856 member Sal
Baglio revived co-worker Edward Van Gaasbec!
who suffered a heart attack.... CSEA wins
victory in first round to halt a job-threatening
real estate tax cap in Erie County.... CSEA files
three lawsuits against Nassau County over
layoff proceedures.... Orange County DSS
caseworker Linda Char stabbed by client who
demanded money.... CSEA wins $51,700 back
pay award for Nassau County member the
county tried to force back to work against |
doctor's orders.... Syracuse City members
protest contract delay.... Smithtown members
angry over being without a contract for
months.... CSEA conducting tuberculosis
awareness training for members as TB epidemic
sweeps state.... Alicia Swords, daughter of
Onondaga County Local 834 member Peter |
Swords, named winner of prestigious AFSCME
Family Scholarship.... CSEA goes on attack
after state Legislature sneaks a law through th
state budget allowing some courts to experimen
with mechanical recording equipment,
threatening court reporter jobs.... Escape of
two inmates at Mid-Orange Correctional
Facility points up the risks faced by many
civilian employees at state correctional
facilities.... CSEA works out agreement that
state employees absent due to illness or injury
directly related to problems at State Office
Campus Building 8 won't be docked personal
leave accruals.... Joseph Maratea, president of 4

CSEA Division for Youth Local 561, named
winner of 1992 CSEA Mission Achievement
Award the the state division.

/

an

f Learning from these experiences

prepares us for the rigors of the

Y

State Legislature approves local government
agency shop, a tremendous legislative victory for
SEA.... CSEA fighting to prevent layoffs in
leveral locations, including City of Glen Cove,
Buffalo Sewer Authority and Monroe County....
Schenectady City CSEA members fighting
jlans to privatize city water plant.... And in
ngston, union is battling city plans to sell the
Kingston City Lab.... In Saranac, CSEA was

e staff of the Saranac Central School
istrict... In White Plains CSEA successfully
stopped a plan to hire a private vendor to
anage custodial services in the White Plains
‘hool District.... Bill Walsh, president of CSEA
‘own of Brookhaven Blue Collar Unit, wins
1992 CSEA Mission Achievement Award for the
bcal government division.... CSEA wins
storation of New Paltz member fired by village
because of his union activities.... Members of
SEA statewide Board of Directors elected to
ee-year terms.... CSEA’s delegation of 275
embers the largest at the 1992 AFSCME
\Convention, which adopted a national agenda
fr action for working men and women....
jarlier on-site training saved the day when
embers of CSEA Local 419 responded to a fire
which damaged electrical and emergency power
ystems at the NYS Psychiatric Institute's
innex.... CSEA joins statewide call for more
funding to fight the threat of TB to public
ployees.... Local 191 member Ron Penird, a
pneral mechanic and locksmith at the Cayuga
Sorrectional Facility, discovered a serious defect
in hydraulic door closures and saved the state
jousands of dollars.

| io in restoring two registered nurses to

AUGUST
Safety inspector, responding to CSEA
pmplaints, says state DOT violated safety laws
in implementing its one-person plowing plan....
SEA dedicates permanent monument at
arlem Valley Psychiatric Center in memory of
chard J. Doyle, killed in 1986 when a boiler

ihe was working on exploded.... Intense union

mpaign pays off as state decides not to
pntract out jobs at new state labs complex in
Aibany.... CSEA and Office of Court
Administration reach agreement on new four-
ar contract for 3,700 court employees....
and state agree on a new pilot leave
lonation program to help CSEA members
fering a catastrophic illness.... CSEA
tivists among hundreds lobbying for health
e reform in the state.... CSEA and other
[public employee unions should be given equal
er status in the battle against sexual
ffiessmen: in the workplace, CSEA statewide
cretary Irene Carr testifies at task force
hearing.... A CSEA class action grievance win
anced promotional opportunities for LPNs at
issau County Medical Center.... Showing why
privatization doesn't work, Fulton County
Local 818 members performed work on several
fojects that saved taxpayers more than
$78,000 compared to private contract costs....
ICSEA members of Onondaga County Local
£34 mid-way through another successful year
entertaining and educating the public at
PAirnet Park Zoo in Syracuse.... CSEA leading
ampaign to halt plans by Niagara County to
ll Mt. View Health Facility.

SEPTEMBER

CSEA fighting plans by Sullivan County to
cut sheriff patrols from budget.... Willard
Psychiatric Center employees rally against
facility's proposed closing; union offers several
options.... CSEA-represented state employees
begin receiving retroactive increments, longevity
and lump sum adjustments for 1991-92 under
terms of new CSEA/state contract.... CSEA
challenges state on new workfare proposal that
threatens jobs by having welfare recipients
work off their grants in state agencies....
Hundreds expected to apply for early
retirement incentive in Nassau County; should
prevent many layoffs.... CSEA City of Port
Jervis Unit Vice President David Mills credited
with averting a potential disaster by using pliers
to squeeze off a broken gas line ruptured by a
backhoe operator.... A State Supreme Court
justice rules the state's 1990 raid on the state
employees’ common retirement fund was
unconstitutional.... Inmate charged with
second degree manslaughter after Cayuga
County Sergeant Vincent S. Spinelli Sr. died of
heart attack after attempting to restrain inmate
at county jail.... CSEA statewide Treasurer
Mary E. Sullivan, a Clinton delegate to the
Democratic National Convention, helps kickoff a
“one woman, one vote" campaign to support Bill
Clinton for President.... Bill Clinton addresses
delegates attending CSEA’s 82nd annual
delegates meeting in New York City.... Delegates
OK wide range of constitution and by-law
changes and resolutions.

OCTOBER

Four CSEA Schuyler County DSS
employees shot and killed by man who then
committed suicide; three were union officers....
CSEA charges short staffing and lack of
security a serious problem at Rockland
Psychiatric Center.... Middletown Psychiatric
Center employee Regan Stephens, a Local 415
shop steward, a hero as he used CPR to twice
revive a six-month-old baby a babysitter had
attempted to smother. The baby survived and
the babysitter was charged with attempted
murder.... Three CSEA members at Brentwood
DFY facility saved the state thousands of dollars
by doing work that had previously been
contracted out.... A work zone safety course
designed by CSEA member Neil Baumgartner is
being taught to DOT employees across the
state.... CSEA files lawsuit to fight replacement
of court reporters with tape recorders.... Carol
Kleinhans, political action chair for CSEA
Middletown Psychiatric Center Local 415,
registers more than 600 new voters at Orange
County Fair.... CSEA President Joe
McDermott tells delegates to CSEA’s annual
retirees delegate meeting that union will
intensify fight for cost of living adjustment for
retirees.... Joe Cosentino, president of CSEA
Retiree Local 923 in St. Lawrence County is
awarded the CSEA Mission Achievement
Award.... CSEA says fight has only just begun
after federal judge rejects CSEA/AFSCME's
historic pay equity lawsuit against Nassau
County.... CSEA demands, gets, tighter
security at Schenectady DSS building after
client assaults employee.... CSEA slams
proposed Onondaga County budget calling for
layoffs and tax increases “heartless and unfair.”

year ahead

NOVEMBER

Nassau County members overwhelming vote
to retain CSEA as their labor union in
representation election.... Union says Rockland
County employees being forced to face deadly
rabies virus by working on animals under
primative conditions with inadequate tools and
improper protective equipment.... Delaware
County Unit and Local 813 members
demonstrated in a show of solidarity as unit
prepared to enter contract negotiations after
having had contract imposed for current year....
CSEA’s official publication, The Public Sector,
named multiple-award winner in an
international journalism contest.... CSEA’s
fight against privatization of public services
gathers steam as several cities, towns, villages
and school districts reject concept of contracting
out... CSEA wins age discrimination case for
CSEA member Jim Ward against Arthur Kill
Correctional Facility; awarded $35,000 in back
pay an damages.... Several CSEA members file
lawsuits against computer makers over unsafe
equipment that caused employees painful
injuries.... CSEA members at Bronx Psychiatric
Center protest security problems at the facility;
many menaced on the job by a gun-toting
former patient.... CSEA officials participate in
opening of latest child care facility at a state
facility - the 80 Hanson Place office complex in
Brooklyn.

DECEMBER

CSEA, furious over state's attitude, breaks
off talks over one-person plowing controversy
which now extends into second winter without
resolution.... NYS Tax Compliance Agent
Prakash Abinchandani shot in unprovoked
attack outside his office in Brooklyn; union says
area unsafe for workers.... CSEA member Bill
Eveleth receives commendation for saving life of
a prisoner who suffered burns when he was
accidentally sprayed with gasoline and caught
fire at Otisville Correctional Facility.... CSEA
outraged over state plans to close the laundry
at Central Islip Psychiatric Center by next
spring.... Union says understaffing is partly to
blame for series of suicides by clients at Kings
Park Psychiatric Center.... Thanks to CSEA’s
persistence, workers in multi-disabled unit at
Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center finally receive
more than $165,000 in hazardous duty pay....
CSEA activist Elaine Mootry becomes first
CSEA member named to prestigious Electoral
College which officially elects Bill Clinton the
next President of the United States.... CSEA’s
home mortgage benefits program helped
CSEA members purchase more than 500 homes
and obtain $50 million in mortgages during
1992.... CSEA wins jobs back for two Nassau
County members the county had improperly
laid off.... CSEA intensifies campaign for safer
workplaces.... Town of Colonie
Communications Specialist John J. Miller,
assisted by three other dispatchers, talked a
caller by phone through CPR techniques that
saved the live of a victim who had stopped

breathing.
January 1993 1 3

GENERAL NEWS

Officer Institutes a success

CSEA trains 1,500 local, unit officers across state

| CSEA local and unit

officers elected in 1992 had
the opportunity to learn the
details of their jobs and
experience the spirit of CSEA
leadership at a series of
Officers Institutes held across
the state.

The institutes also gave the
local and unit officers a
chance to meet with CSEA’s
statewide leaders at the same
time they were benefitting
from the efforts of CSEA’s
education and training staff.

More than 1,500 officers
attended the weekend
institutes held in each of
CSEA’s six regions.

>

CSEA Statewide Secretary talks with officers, including : Capital Region officers prepare for the
CSEA Local 648 Third Vice President Mary Pat Fox, right, Institute.
at the Central Region Institute.

The Officers Institute
for the Metropolitan
Region packed ina
crowd of newly-
gted local and unit
officers.

The Officers Institute brought smiles to the faces of
these Long Island officers.

CSEA statewide Treasurer Mary Sullivan talks with
Dominic Spacone, a unit president in Retiree Local
903, at the Western Region Institute.

CSEA Local 507 President George Ballard, CSEA Executive Vice President
Danny Donohue, CSEA President Joe McDermott and Local 507 First Vice
President Jack Shaw talk at the Southern Region Institute.

1 4 January 1993 gZ ‘

GENERAL NEWS

And now you know the rest of the story

CSEA member helped save burn victims

MT. HOPE - Two youngsters who were
severely burned in an explosion of a
propane tank are doing well, thanks to a
CSEA member and his wife.

The two girls, Bridgett, 7, and Kelli, 6,
were the subject of a story in the November
edition of The Public Sector. They are the
nieces of Margaret Trentacosta, a CSEA

member who works for the Ramapo-Catskill

Library System in Orange County.

What was not included in the previous
story was the heroic effort of neighbors
Ralph and Frances Gonzalez, who live next
door to the accident scene. Ralph, a
member of CSEA DMNA Local 252, was in

his house when he heard the explosion next

door.

Gonzalez saw white smoke and fire and
immediately called the Otisville Volunteer
Fire Department. While he was on the
phone, Bridgett and Kelli's mother, Jessica,
came to the door with her children under
her arms. The girls and the mother were
screaming hysterically.

“Their clothes and most of their hair was
burned off and you could see where their
flesh had been removed,” Gonzalez said.

Coincidentally, Frances had seen a
program on television just the night before
on the treatment of burn victims. She and
the girls’ mother removed the children’s
clothing with scissors and applied cool

water to the girls. Ralph, meanwhile, helped
firefighters and police who by this time had
arrived.

Dr. Robert Salisbury, director of the Burn
Center, said Mrs. Gonzalez's quick thinking

_

prevented deeper injury to childrens’ skin.
A police officer on the scene, Robert
Hughes, said, “In my opinion, they saved
them from further injury.”

“I'm just glad we were home,” Gonzalez
said, who pointed out that the houses are
in a rural area with the next closest home a
mile away.

Trentacosta reported recently that the
girls are doing well. Bridgett has been
released from the hospital, but will require
further plastic surgery and will be fitted
with a special garment that she will have to
wear to protect her skin. As this issue of
The Public Sector goes to press, Kelli hopes
to be home for the holidays. The family has
rented a new home in Orange County which
was offered to them after the family’s story
appeared in a local newspaper.

Trentacosta said the community has
been very supportive in contributing to the
burn fund for the girls, one of whom has no
health insurance. Expenses have also been
incurred by the family from hotel bills and
transportation to Westchester Medical
Center.

The address for the Burn Fund has been
changed since it was published in the
November Public Sector. Anyone wishing to
contribute, can send their donation to the
Everett Burns Relief Fund, P.O. Box 945,
Middletown, NY 10940.

Lisa Hauth and Deborah Yoder pursued their grievance to the end

Heroism is defense of a principle

By Daniel X. Campbell
CSEA Communications Associate
ALBANY — CSEA members who file
meritorious grievances and are willing to
pursue them to the end, win or lose, are

heros and heroines in the eyes of the union.

Such individuals have learned there is a
way to fight the system, to make a point by
taking a stand on a principle.

People such as Lisa Hauth and Deborah
Yoder, two grade 14s in the state
Department of Social Services (DSS), for
instance. Hauth and Yoder have used the
collective bargaining system's grievance
procedure as it is supposed to be used.

They won an out-of-title work grievance,
not once but twice, and along the way
helped CSEA establish new legal
precedent which will aid CSEA members
in the future.

Hauth and Yoder were constantly being
asked, and ordered, by DSS management
to perform out-of-title work at a grade 18
level. Both performed the work in an
exemplary manner, and after doing the
out-of-title work for several months
without any relief, they filed a grievance
seeking out-of-title pay.

Working within the CSEA contract,
Hauth and Yoder contacted CSEA Local
688 President Charlie Staats, who in turn
informed CSEA Labor Relations Specialist
Michael Sheldon of the situation, and the
four began working together as a team.

Hauth and Yoder produced records of
their numerous out-of-title work

assignments, having kept copious notes of
each assignment they were given. They
compared their job descriptions and the job
descriptions of other related titles in higher
grades, and categorized their duties in such
a way that it was patently clear they were
indeed performing out-of-title work.
Meanwhile Staats and Sheldon compiled
the paperwork necessary to pursue the out-
of-title claim.

In February 1991 Hauth and Yoder were _
informed by the Governor's Office of
Employee Relations (GOER) that they were
performing out-of-title work and they were
awarded nearly $3,000 each in back pay.
GOER also ordered DSS to not assign
anymore out-of-title work to Hauth and
Yoder.

DSS paid the
women but then

|

Deborah Yoder

Lisa Hauth

Local 688
President
Charlie Staats

gZ : January 1993 1 5

shocked Hauth and Yoder by continuing to
assign them out-of-title work. A second
grievance was filed and CSEA's Legal
Department also sued the state.

The state Supreme Court recently agreed
with CSEA that the state violated its duty to
cease and desist from ordering additional
out-of-title work for Hauth and Yoder.

DSS paid the two employees about $900
each as the result of the additional out-of-
title work.

“We didn’t do it for the money,” Hauth
said. “We did if for the principle. We wanted
to prove our point.” And in doing so they
helped establish a new legal precedent.

“The importance of this grievance and the
resulting court action is that it established
that CSEA can go to court to enforce third
step grievance decisions regarding cea
and desist orders on out-of-title work,”
said CSEA Associate Counsel Paul S.
Bamberger, who developed the union's
court e. “This case reaffirms that we
don’t have to go back and continually file
new grievances indefinitely in out-of-title
work situations."

“DSS management isn't too happy with
this decision, and upper state
management isn't happy with CSEA's
persistence in this case and the use of
court orders to stop out-of-title work
situations,” Staats said. “But all of this
could have been avoided if DSS has
complied with the first decision and
stopped forcing the employees to perform
out-of-title work.”

GENERAL NEWS

Worksite security, political gains
highlight CSEA Women's Conference

By Lilly Gioia
CSEA Communications Associate

WHITE PLAINS - With the theme “New York Works Because
CSEA Women Work,” the 12th Annual Women's Conference
honored SUNY New Paltz Local 610 President Diane Lucchesi as
recipient of the 1992 Irene Carr Leadership Award.

Five hundred activists joined CSEA President Joe McDermott in

saluting her distinguished
efforts to improve employment
opportunities for women in non-
traditional jobs.

This year's conference was
overshadowed by the recent
murders of four Watkin's Glen
social service workers, CSEA
women slain by a distraught
client who later turned his gun
upon himself. McDermott told
conferees of recent National
Institute of Occupational Safety
and Health findings that
“homicide has become a leading
cause of workplace deaths
among women.”

CSEA Safety and Health
Specialist Wendy Hord and NYS
Kirby Forensic Psychiatric
Center Director Dr. Renata
Wack led a jam-packed
workshop titled “Violence in the
Workplace - There Ought To Be
a Law!” CSEA is addressing the
urgent need for facility security
campaigns across the state,
Hord said, by working to
develop statewide security
standards.

“CSEA is contacting every
county to ascertain that security

measures are in place and identify
needed,” Hord said.

other measures that are

In another presentation, AFSCME Women's Rights Department

DIANE LUCCHESI, president of CSEA SUNY New Paltz Local
610, receives the Irene Carr Leadership Award from CSEA
President Joe McDermott. Lucchesi is a longtime CSEA
activist who has pushed to open non-traditional jobs for
women at SUNY New Paltz.

Director Cathy Collette told an enthusiastic audience that their
hard work in the Clinton election campaign will pay off in
legislation to improve women’s work and family lives. After 12
years of an anti-woman Republican administration in Washington,
“We can now look optimistically toward finally having a President

in the White House who won't
veto a Family and Medical Leave
Act or the Freedom of Choice
Act,” Collette said.

To celebrate the number of
newly-elected women who will
serve in the 103rd Congress in
January, as well as the
contributions of America’s fore-
mothers, CSEA Women’s
Committee members appeared
in costumes. They addressed
the Conference as famous
women in American history
including Eleanor Roosevelt and
Sojourner Truth.

Seminar topics included
money management and tax
trends, legal issues for women,
fighting the tuberculosis
epidemic, building workplace
strength and women in the
labor movement, among others.

McDermott encouraged
activists to read CSEA's
“Essentially Women” newsletter
for alerts on important
legislation. The most recent
issue about the “Violence
Against Women Act,” was
snapped up by conference
participants.

Getting into
the spirit of
women’s
history

CSEA President Joe
McDermott joins members
of the CSEA Women's
Committee dressed as
women in history. They
are, from left: Helen Zocco
as Eleanor Roosevelt,
Harriet Hart as Sojourner
Truth, Ellen Burke as a
woman in a non-traditional
job, McDermott, Sylvia
Thomas as Rosa Parks,
Genevieve Clark as a nurse,
Cathy Barretta as a modern
woman and Lucy Jackson
as Clara Barton.

January 1993

16

ele ie Ee oes?
STATE GOVERNMENT NEWS

CSEA MEMBER JUNE Nickerson with her
check for more than $1,000, part of an
$82,000 settlement for CSEA members.

By Mark M. Kotzin
CSEA Communications Associate

BINGHAMTON — Christmas came early
for more than 30 CSEA-represented
workers at the Binghamton Psychiatric
Center (BPC) when they
received more than $1,000
in their paychecks.

The award came after
CSEA filed a complaint with
the U.S. Department of
Labor (DOL) because BPC’s
evening shift workers for
years have not been able to
take meal breaks without
interruption.

“DOL corrected a long-standing injustice
and gave a nice, unexpected bonus to those
who suffered under the old policy,” CSEA
Local 441 President Keith Zulko said.

For years, BPC evening shift workers had
to stay on the wards during meal breaks
and were often interrupted to attend to
clients.

The unfair practice violated the Fair
Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which requires
that employees get an uninterrupted half
hour break. CSEA:raised the problem
repeatedly in labor-management
discussions, but it was never resolved.

In 1989, Local 441 Grievance Chair
George Stevens and CSEA Labor Relations
Specialist Gerald Phelan filed the federal
DOL complaint.

DOL ruled that the facility had to stop
the practice and pay compensation to the
workers for 1988 to 1990. For CSEA
members, that compensation totaled more
than $82,000.

CSEA member June Nickerson, a therapy
aide, has worked the evening shift for 11 of
her 19 years at BPC. She said she always

CSEA members win $82,000

thought the policy was unfair, but that it
was just part of the system.

“It seemed like you never got your dinner
time away from the clients. There was

always some kind of interruption,”
Nickerson said. “We didn’t
think anyone could do
anything about it. It was
great that CSEA interceded
on our behalf.”

Nickerson and more
than 30 other therapy
aides received the
maximum $1,052
settlement, About 70

others will get some settlement money.
For example, Zulko will get paid for the
eight months he worked evenings. But the
compensation was less important than the
principle, he said.

“The real effect of this decision is to right
a wrong,” he said. “I always felt that the
practice was wrong and that the employees
were entitled to the full time.”

The practice is related to the continuous
problems of short staffing and out-of-title
work that plague Office of Mental Health
(OMH) system, Zulko said.

“The real issue is the short staffing that
the state has created, forcing the workers to
take piecemeal breaks to ensure proper
coverage,” he said.

The situation is improving, Zulko said.
Workers must schedule breaks and are
encouraged to leave the wards. Zulko
praised the facility director, Dwight Rhodes,
for his cooperation.

CSEA Central Region President Jim
Moore said Zulko and his members should
be proud of the decision which proved once
again that abuse of CSEA members’ rights
will not be tolerated.

ARBITRATIONS

TRAINING MATTERS -- CSEA Education and
Training Specialist Connie Wunderlich leads a
workshop on grievance training for shop stewards
in CSEA's Metropolitan Region.

At Ossining Correctional Facility:

CSEA clears member

OSSINING - Lou Pristero can finally get a good night's
sleep.

CSEA successfully fought charges that Pristero, CSEA
Local 161 president, was indirectly responsible for the
stabbing of a corrections officer at Ossining Correctional
Facility.

Pristero, an electrician, said he lost his screwdriver
somewhere inside the facility in 1990. He filed a lost tool
report as required by the Department of Corrections.

More than a year later an inmate used a screwdriver to
stab a guard. Officials said they had reason to believe the
inmate used Pristero’s lost screwdriver in the assault.
They also accused him of not filing a lost tool report and
threatened him with a six-month suspension. A
disciplinary hearing took place in November.

“I don’t think I slept five minutes the night before,”
Pristero said.

“I told them it wasn’t my screwdriver,”
never produced during the hearing.

Charges were finally dropped and Pristero credits CSEA with keeping him
working during the months before the hearing.

“The Department of Corrections needed a scapegoat,”
bailed me out.”

CSEA Labor Relations Specialist Rich Blair praised attorney Barton Bloom “for
his professionalism in a well-prepared and well-executed defense of the charges.”

LOCAL 161 President
Lou Pristero

he said, noting that the screwdriver was

he said, “The union

g : January 1993 1 7

2

STATE GOVERNMENT NEWS
Driver threatens member:

Danger on the road

HAWTHORNE - After threatening a state
Department of Transportation (DOT) worker with
his car, a driver was fined only $50.

Scott Weaver, a member of CSEA Local 507, was
directing traffic on Westchester County's busy Saw
Mill Parkway while a crane operator cleared the
roadway of debris. When Weaver stopped the traffic
at one point, the first driver became impatient.

“The crane operator dropped his first bucketload
and the driver honked his horn and yelled to me
‘Let me pass! I'm-in a hurry!” Weaver said. “I told
him that if anything hit his car, I would be
responsible and he'd just have to wait.”

The driver told Weaver, a 13-year DOT employee,
that he had no business stopping him and began
edging toward him.

“When he hit my leg, I jumped onto his car hood
so he wouldn't run me down,” Weaver said. The
driver kept moving.

A quick-thinking DOT truck driver blocked the
car with his truck. Weaver managed to get to his
truck, called his boss, Shop Steward Mike Raguseo,
who called police. Luckily, Weaver was not hurt.

The police took the driver away in handcuffs, but
released him three hours later with a ticket for
failure to obey a flag-person. ; me

“A $50 fine for nearly running a man down!”
Raguseo said. Police said there was nothing more
they could do.

Accidents at construction sites are not unusual.
The day after Weaver's problem, a car hit two DOT
engineers on the Taconic Parkway, injuring one of them critically.

SLOW DOWN FOR THESE SIGNS -- CSEA member Scott Weaver, right, wound up
on the hood of a car after an irate driver tried to get past him at a construction
site. With him is CSEA Shop Steward Mike Raguseo, who called police.

shaving, women putting on make-up, drivers reading maps and

In June 1979, three DOT employees were killed by a truck while newspapers. They don't realize how fast they're driving. I've seen

working on Route 84 in Newburgh. them run into the back of equipment.
Workers are constantly being threatened by drivers who do not ‘We're out there to repair the roads for the drivers,” he said. “We
want to stop for construction, Raguseo said. go through extensive safety training, but until the drivers realize
“People don’t pay attention,” Raguseo said. “I've seen men what they're doing, we have no control.”

r 7
i 2 . i
t 1
| NYSHIP provides important numbers, addresses _ |
! The Joint Committee on Health Benefits has compiled a list of telephone numbers regarding health insurance and other CSEA- '
! important NYS Health Insurance Program (NYSHIP) contacts and _ negotiated benefits for CSEA-represented state employees. \
t i
1 Please clip and save for future reference H
I 1
t 1
| QUESTIONS ABOUT: CONTACT/ADDRESS: PHONE NUMBERS: :
! Enrollment, Eligibility, Options, Employee Benefit Check with your agency Health Benefits \
' Cards, Mailings Administrator (Personnel Office) i
i i 1
| CSEA Prescription Drug, Vision, and Dental CSEA Employee Benefit Fund, P.O. Box 11-156, (518) 465-4555 i
! Programs Albany, NY 12211 1-800-323-2732 H
|— 1
' OCA employees, effective Jan.1, with questions CIGNA/Paid Prescriptions, Inc. 1-800-272-PAID (7243) H
H regarding prescription drugs H
i 1
| HMO providers, covered services, emergency care, Call Your HMO directly 1
| cards i
1 1
| EMPIRE PLAN i
| Benefits Management Program: Hospital Pre- Empire Plan “Health Call” (Intracorp) 1-800-992-1213 i
| Admissions Certification, Prospective Procedure i
| Review and Second Opinion i
1 t
| Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services American Psychmanagement (APM) 1-800-446-3995 !
1 i
| Blue Cross (Hospital) claims Contact the Blue Cross office serving the area (518) 465-017 1(Within Albany and Alaska) i
H where you live. 1-800-342-9815 (Within NY State) ‘|
H 1-800-428-4292 (Other states except Alaska) {
1 t
| Metropolitan (Medical/Basic Medical) Claims- Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, 1-800-942-4640 (Within NY State) H
| Allow 30 days for processing; Pre-determination of _ C.P.O. Box 1600, Kingston, NY 12401-0600 1-800-431-4312 (Outside NY State) |
| Benefits ; H
i i
i Whether your Physician is a Participating Provider Check with your provider, or contact Metropolitan 1-800-537-0010 !
H Life Insurance Company H
t t
| General health information and referrals Metropolitan Health Care Call Line 1-800-336-3696 (Within NY State) H
H 1-800-722-7789 (Outside NY State) H
Koc tgintaah eae cen Wee eenececaan cates teen enna et auneemecnunennaaus enn nenaureseanEeenes xaaeckue keen ens hi aanenn nen anos -

1 8 January 1993 gZ :

STATE GOVERNMENT NEWS

At SUNY Health and Science Center

Library assistant leads statewide group

At SUNY New Paltz:

Communications office
gets the space it needs

NEW PALTZ — Persistence can pay off. Just ask the
communications employees at SUNY New Paltz.

It took four years, but they finally got sufficient space to do their
jobs.

When workers in campus telecommunications office complained
about lack of space, office supervisors made the usual requests for
more room,

While college officials agreed the office needed more space, they
made no commitments. CSEA filed safety and health complaints,
but there are no standards for space.

Five workers, desks, computers, file cabinets and a safe were
crowded into fewer than 400 square feet. The telecommunications
office manages the entire telephone system for the college, voice
and data systems including computers and voice mail and phones
for the students.

After CSEA persisted on the issue for years, the administration
finally did something. Now the telecommunications office is located
in a suite of five offices with nearly 900 square feet — four years
after the request was first made.

“It was a matter of cooperative effort,” CSEA Local 610 President
Diane Lucchesi said. “It's been incredible what we've been able to
get done. It’s just a shame it had to take so long.”

SYRACUSE — Even though she works in a library, CSEA Local
615 member and delegate Ellen Price isn’t a librarian — and she
wants everyone to know it.

Price is a media services clerk in the Medical Library at SUNY
Health Science Center in Syracuse and the current president of
the New York State Library Assistants Association (NYSLAA). Her
goal is to make sure library istants get the recognition they
deserve.

All too often, Price said, library assistants - clerks, aides,
technicians and various other support staff - are mistaken for
librarians and are not recognized for what they do. The mistake is
an easy one to make, as job duties have changed over the years,
she said.

“It's easy to mistake us for librarians because our roles have
definitely been blurred over the last decade,” she said. “Many of
the duties previously performed by librarians are now being done
by library assistants.”

Many of the role changes are due to increased automation in
many libraries, which require different skills from those of the
certified librarians. Increasingly, another function of library
assistants is to interact with library patrons, Price said, relieving
librarians of some pressure and allowing them to get their work
done.

Price, also a member of CSEA Local 646, is proud of the work
that NYSLAA does; it is one of the few organizations not affiliated
with existing associations for librarians. The organization,
officially founded in 1988, is run by library assistants with the
express purpose of enhancing their status, furthering their
professional growth and providing a network for communication
among members, she said. They have their own newsletter, the
NYSLAA Network Connection and annual conferences with
professional development workshops; the executive council
members often travel across America to keep pace with new ideas
and technologies important to library assistants.

“The faster pace of technology necessitates an organization like
ours to share responsibilities and compare how things are done
in different places,” Price said. “Sometimes we end up finding
easier ways to get things done.”

As president, Price presides over five regional groups
throughout the state. She is also joined by CSEA SUNY
Binghamton Local 648 member Donna Pflanz, who serves as a
NYSLAA vice president. Because the organization is very public
service oriented, Price said, she wants to reach out to other CSEA
members who perform similar work to make them aware of the
organization and what it can do for them.

Health Dept. member
eds leave donations

MONTICELLO - Mid-Hudson State Employees Local 009
President Vinnie Lord is asking CSEA members who work for
the state Health Department to open their hearts and donate
annual leave days to a co-worker who will be absent from work
until July.

Adelaide Tobin, an eight-year employee who works as a
keyboard specialist, has leukemia. According to her co-workers
in Sullivan County, Tobin is planning to return to work once her
treatment is completed in July. The problem is, she has run out
of leave accruals.

Thanks to the new sick leave donation program negotiated by
the union, CSEA-represented state employees who run out of
time do not have to run out of paychecks. According to the
agreement that established the program, the donors must “be
employed in the same agency or facility” as the person receiving
the donation. In this case, the agency is the state Health
Department.

Donations can be made only in full-day units from annual
leave and donors must retain a minimum of at least 10 days of

annual leave to their credit after making a donation.
Prospective donors should contact their CSEA local.

g hs January 1993 1 9

STATE GOVERNMENT NEWS

The battle continues

= | OMH hearings ‘a charade,’

RES

ALBANY — Calling public hearings on
the latest version of the Office of Mental
Health (OMH) Five-Year Plan a charade,
CSEA officials have chosen not to waste
their breath on public testimony.

CSEA has, however, submitted written
objections for the record and renewed its
public attack against OMH deficiencies.

CSEA has been publicizing its concerns
statewide through media activities to
coincide with the series of OMH hearings.

“The latest five-year plan simply
continues the current irresponsible OMH

policies of closing facilities without regard
for the consequences,” CSEA President Joe
McDermott said. “We detailed our views
about the deficiencies at the last set of
hearings and have repeatedly stated them
publicly since then.

“But neither our concerns nor those of
any other group concerned about state
mental health policy have any impact
whatsoever on OMH.”

For that reason, CSEA decided it served
no purpose to testify at hearings.

“CSEA has repeatedly focused attention

“testimony a waste of breath

on OMH deficiencies that are the shame of
all New York,” said CSEA Executive Vice
President Danny Donohue, who chairs the
union’s Mental Hygiene Task Force. “But
the real shame is that no one cares that
lives are destroyed and the resulting
problems are dumped on our communities.
We'll keep hammering away at these issues
but our priority is to protect the interests
and jobs of our members.”

“CSEA will not condone OMH
irresponsibility by helping them perpetuate
a hoax on the public.”

CSEA wins on bumping rights

ALBANY — CSEA won the first round of a
legal battle to protect the seniority and
bumping rights of direct care workers in the
Office Mental Health (OMH) and Office of
Mental Retardation and Developmental
Disabilities (OMRDD).

A state Supreme Court judge ruled that
employees in Mental Hygiene Therapy Aide
(MHTA), Community Residence Aide and
Residential Program Assistants titles must
have the same bumping rights in layoffs.

The decision upholds the 1972 CSEA-

CENTRAL ISLIP — CSEA has filed a
class action grievance as one facet of its
fight for its members at the Central Islip
Psychiatric Center (CIPC) laundry.

As reported in The Public Sector last
month, the union is outraged over plans to
close the laundry next spring. CSEA had
no advance warning of the closing, which
was announced at about the same time
the state awarded an “experimental”
contract to a private, for-profit vendor to
handle some state laundry services.

CSEA is questioning how the contract is
“experimental” if the state is contracting at
the same time it is eliminating a major
component of its laundry operations.

“Our laundry members deserve better
than this,” CSEA CIPC Local 404 President
Barbara Allen said. “The state made no
attempt to discuss this issue and explore
options. Now they're trying to tell us there
are no options, and we don’t buy that.”

“The state's actions are suspect at every
step in this process,” CSEA Deputy
Director for Contract Administration Tony
Campione said. “We want all the facts out
on the table.”

NYS layoff unit agreement that considers
OMH and OMRDD as a single layoff unit.
That means OMH employees can bump into
OMRDD jobs and vice versa.

But as facilities closed and patients,
primarily in OMRDD, were moved to
community residences, the state decided
the community titles were different. As a
result, when layoffs came in recent years,
MHTAs with seniority were effectively
blocked from bumping less senior
employees in the community-based titles.

over
Jproposed
closing of
Central -
\ Islip
faundry

The judge ruled that the similarity
between the direct care titles could not be
ignored.

However, the victory is not complete
because the state is appealing the decision.

“The practice was a slap in the face of
long-term employees and violated our
longstanding agreement,” CSEA President
Joe McDermott said. “What the state tried
to do was wrong and it should rectify the
situation instead of making it worse by
dragging it through a lengthy appeal.”

CSEA fights plan
to undermine
South Beach PC

STATEN ISLAND - CSEA members at
South Beach Psychiatric Center are
agitated over OMH attempts to undermine
the future of their facility.

CSEA has learned that OMH is
pressuring at least one general hospital in
the South Beach catchment area to take
over part of the facility's admissions
capability.

South Beach competitively services
Staten Island and a portion of Brooklyn
with a full range of high quality care for
mentally ill people. CSEA believes that
OMH should be seeking to enhance that
delivery instead of trying to destroy it.

“This facility is in a unique situation for
a lot of reasons but one of the most
important is that we provide a full range
of services effectively,” said CSEA South
Beach Psychiatric Center Local 446
President Joel Schwartz. “Giving away
even a portion of our acute admissions is
like cutting off our supply of oxygen,” he
said.

The local is taking nothing for granted
and is now making the community and
local legislators aware of the situation and
what's at stake.

STATE GOVERNMENT NEWS

| Nothing keeps Pat Rowe down

By Ron Wofford

CSEA Communications Associate

BUFFALO - Pat Rowe, a
calculations clerk at Buffalo

Psychiatric Center, isn’t normally one

to complain.

He's usually too busy with his state

job, coaching the Silver Wheels

wheelchair football team, taking care
of his home and paying his mortgage

and taxes.
But economic restrictions on his

earnings under Medicaid are creating

a dilemma.
Rowe, 40, has battled cerebral

palsy all his life; hip surgery in 1980
didn’t produce the desired results and

he now must use a
wheelchair. That hasn't
slowed him down, but
Medicaid restrictions
worry him.

“Tam in a difficult

am currently receiving

For donations
or information on
Silver Wheels
football, write:
situation,” Rowe said. “I [RsaOMB sto /4p We ton
125 Galleria

presently costing them by working. I
have been told jokingly by my friends
that I should quit my job and just live
off the system. But I want a better
quality of life, and I'm willing to work
and pay for it.”

Despite his concerns, Rowe keeps
busy trying to improve the quality of
the lives of others. A decade before he
started using a wheelchair himself,
Rowe founded the Silver Wheels
wheelchair football team. Using a
wheelchair hasn't stopped him from
coaching the Wheels.

“I wanted an activity that would
show because someone is in a
wheelchair, they are not without
ability,” Rowe said.

He has received
numerous civic and
community service awards
for his Silver Wheels work,
which he calls his “full-
time hobby.” He receives

approximately 42 hours [Ba}eyg-4esittse) (Map gem president and director.

of personal care aide
services through
Medicaid. I live on my
own, have a home and
pay a mortgage and
taxes. Medicaid has very definite
income limits; the more I earn, the
more I must repay Medicaid.

“While I am fortunate to work when
so many of my disabled peers cannot,

I am faced with a growing financial

dilemma. I need to make more money,
but when I earn more I am penalized
so much that it seems like I'm paying

taxes twice. As a grade 6 public
employee, I simply cannot pay for
personal care aide services on my
own.”

Rowe, a 14-year BPC
employee and member of
CSEA Local 403, said he
is desperately trying to
maintain his
independence and his
home, for which he has
worked very hard
through the years. He is
seeking information
about any alternative to
Medicaid.

“As it looks now, I,
along with other disabled
adults, will not be able to
maintain our positions in
the job market, even with
the enactment of the
Americans with
Disabilities Act, although
several provisions have
helped improve things at
my worksite,” Rowe said.
“There are just too many
disincentives that will
keep the disabled worker
out of the job market.

“If 1am unable to
maintain my home and
lose it, I will cost
Medicaid more than I am

14225-9998. All
donations are tax-
deductible.

Rowe arranges charity
games with able-bodied
groups or individuals who
also must use wheelchairs
in the game. The “field” is
usually a gymnasium or basketball
court, with nine players per team.

Silver Wheels has a total roster of
about 30 players, ages nine to 40.

Rowe is always seeking game
sponsors or volunteers for game
assistance or other outings with the
group. He would like to arrange a
game sometime with CSEA members
from area locals and units.

“It's a lot of fun,” Rowe said, “and it
helps able-bodied folks see things
from a disabled person’s perspective.”

no compensation as coach,

CSEA member Pat Rowe is coach of the Silver Wheels
football team for those in wheelchairs.

Fear is legacy
of brutal
attack in 1985

Pat Rowe doesn't consider
himself a “victim” of cerebral
palsy, but he has been a victim of
a brutal crime.

In 1985, he was stabbed 23
times near the heart and on both
arms by a drug-addicted
assailant who then stole the van
belonging to the Silver Wheels
team. The attacker later received
a six to 18-year prison term.
Rowe missed several months
from work while recovering.
ess I'm still recovering,”
id. “I try not to let it
affect my work, but I'm less
trusting and more fearful of
people now. The main thing that
kept me going through the ordeal
was knowing so many people
were depending on me to keep
Silver Wheels going.”

g si January 1993 21

SR AEM Ah SPA, Sala ik MOR oO AAA UE ec Pee WS SE ee eB re BIR S S

STATE GOVERNMENT NEWS

'We're damn mad!’

ALBANY — CSEA's fight with the state
Department of Transportation over the
irresponsible one-person plowing (OPP)
policy is once again generating plenty of
heat this winter. CSEA has renewed its
attack on the dangers of the policy and
DOT's unwillingness to work out a
reasonable and responsible approach to the
situation.

CSEA broke off talks with DOT in
November after two frustrating months of
trying to get DOT to address the safety,
certification and compensation issues for
the drivers.

State DOT
putting squeeze
on local officials

Pressuring state plow operators to accept
OPP apparently isn’t enough for DOT. There
are now indications that DOT is also
putting the squeeze on local governments
to adopt the policy.

DOT reportedly wants local highway
departments with which it contracts for
plowing to implement OPP as a cost-cutting
move and to help legitimize the state’s
policy. DOT is threatening funding
disincentives to force compliance.

While the heavy-handed DOT tactics are
disturbing, how local governments respond
could raise a whole range of new safety and
health issues.

Any attempt to ramrod an OPP policy
into place at the local government level
without taking the necessary precautions
or preparation could be a safety and health
violation.

Since DOT's OPP training has already
been cited by PESH for being inadequate
and inconsistent, slap-dash imitations
should be challenged.

There are other safety issues that could
also be considered potential safety and
health violations if localities try to
implement one-person plowing. They
include the type of equipment used,
equipment modification, if any, policies on
the number of consecutive hours that can
be worked, types of roads being covered,
and turnaround policies, for example.

CSEA is urging its local government
highway units which are under pressure
to adopt OPP to file PESH complaints
immediately.

The union is also urging its members and
local government officials to write to state
DOT Commissioner Franklin White
objecting to the DOT tactics. Write to him
at the New York State Department of
Transportation, State Office Building
Campus, Albany, NY 12226.

CSEA/state contracts

‘being mailed to

members, fee payers 38 .c00 sities

“We're damn mad,” CSEA president Joe
McDermott wrote to CSEA DOT members in
a letter explaining the situation.

Last season CSEA successfully
challenged DOT's preparation and training
in implementing the policy through a Public
Employee Safety and Health (PESH)
complaint upheld by the state Labor
Department.

The PESH citation found that DOT's
training program was inconsistent and
inadequate.

As a result of that citation, DOT
promised to work with CSEA to address the
procedures, but DOT has not followed
through. CSEA has notified the Labor
Department about DOT's failure to correct
deficiencies and is awaiting the results of
the department's reinvestigation.

According to a report in the Watertown
Times, DOT claims to have saved $6 million
on snow and ice removal last year. CSEA is

Vince Rudinski Jr., heavy
equipment operator, CSEA shop
steward, CSEA Orange County
State Transportation Local 515

“You
have
blind

the
truck.
All the
mirrors
in the
worid
don't
help!”

Bob Ginda, president of CSEA
Orange County State
Transportation Local 515

CSEA-represented state employees will
soon be receiving their personal copy of
the 1991-95 CSEA/State contract.

Copies of the collecti yargaining

ments are being mailed to more than

geney shop

appalled that DOT is unwilling to use any of
that “savings” to ensure safer operations
through improved training and certification
procedures, upgrading equipment and
involving the operators in the
implementation of the policy.

“DOT can’t have it both ways,” CSEA
President Joe McDermott said. “If they're
saving money they should be using some of
it to improve the safety and pay of the
operators to reflect the more difficult and
responsible work they're performing. If
they're not saving money then why are they
shoving OPP down everybody's throat?”

Last year, one person operators were
involved in numerous mishaps and two
motorists were killed in OPP accidents.

“Once again, DOT is playing fast and
loose with safety to try to save a few bucks,”
said CSEA President Joe McDermott. “But
all they're gaining is ‘blood money’.”

“You
have 11
levers ina
double
wing
truck, plus
10 speeds
anda
sander.
There are
too many
things for
one person
to watch.”

Craig Schmick, highway
maintenance supervisor,
CSEA Orange County State
Transportation Local 515
member

Traffic a special hazard
during Long Island storms

Anger over DOT's one-person plowing
policy is not exclusive to the snowbelt
regions of the state. CSEA members on
Long Island are also being heard from.

“We don’t get a lot of snow, but we sure
have to operate in a lot of traffic and that
means that OPP can be just as dangerous
here as it is upstate,” said Long Island
Department of Transportation CSEA Local
508 President Hank Jenny.

To make sure the public understands
that their traveling safety is at issue, the
Long Island CSEA members took to the
shopping malls during the holiday season
to distribute flyers about DOT's reckless
OPP policy.

fee payers represented by the union

State employe ho have not received
their copy of the contract by the first week
in February should contact the
appropriate CSEA regional office to obtain
Vreplacement Copy

22 January 1993 gZ : :

State News

Page 17

CSEA wins big for Binghamton Psychiatric
Center workers.

Page 18
A driver threatens a DOT worker with a lethal

INDEX

Page 19

SUNY New Paltz communications workers
finally get the space they need.

Page 20

A round-up of breaking news in the Office of
Mental Health.

Page 21

Pat Rowe overcomes his disability but fights
the Medicaid system.

Page 22

CSEA continues the battle against one-
person plowing.

‘weapon -- his car.

HOLIDAY FOOD
DRIVE A SUCCESS
- The Women’s

| Committee of

_| CSEA’s Teachers’
Retirement System
Local 658 collected
411 pounds of food
for the Capital
District Food Bank.
Local 658 members
Donna Keefer, seat-
ed, Patty Salamack,
standing, Colleen
Dougan and Dolores
Crawford, packed
the food.

DFY VIDEO EXCELLENCE — CSEA President Joe
McDermott, right, and Division for Youth (DFY)
Commissioner Leonard Dunston display The
National Juvenile Justice Video Award of Merit
presented to CSEA and the state for a DFY
training video produced with negotiated labor-
management funds.

NEW OFFICES IN NEW YORK -- The newly-
relocated CSEA Metropolitan Region office near
South Street Seaport ix lower Manhattan
welcomed scores of union activists and legislators
to an open house and legislative reception.

“The new two-floor expanded facilities provide
nearly twice the space of our previous office at
almost half the rental costs,” CSEA Region
Director Alan Jennings said.

At the reception are, from left, Jennings, New
York City Council Representative Adam Clayton
Powell IV and Metropolitan Region President
George Boncoraglio.

EAP PACT SIGNED

The Employee Assistance
Program, which helps
employees cope with personal
problems that might affect
their work, is now available
for SUNY Oswego employees.
Present for the signing the
EAP agreement were, seated
from left: Guy Kevin Reed,
EAP regional representative;
Dick Guyer of CSEA Local
611; SUNY Oswego President
Stephen L. Weber; Greg Auleta
of the United University
Professionals; Natalie Waters
of CSEA Local 622; and Mike
Payne of Council 82. They are
surrounded by members of
the EAP Steering Committee.

we 7d gi : : s i \ :

Official publication of

CSE

Soe THE PUBLIC . Vol. 16, No. 1 JANUARY 1993

LOCAL GOVERNMENT NEWS PAGES 1-8

NOTICE OF ELECTION
of CSEA region
officers...Page 10