The CSEA looks at public service the way I do, that it's a very important quality, it's
an important kind of mission to serve the public.
Every taxpayer relies on the government, whether it's the state, local, municipal government
to provide a service to them.
And the CSEA, they're the hot and sole of the state workforce.
These are the people who are there every single day providing vital service.
And people appreciate that, they need it, and that's why CSEA has been successful for
a hundred years because they've been committed to public service for a hundred years.
I always had a warm feeling for the CSEA.
I came out of a family background, my father was a member of a union, my mother was a member
of a union, and I was always delighted that the CSEA was going after benefits that would
help state employees generally and mean specifically.
When I first went to work for the state, I was sat down by the personnel officer and
told the retirement program, the health benefits program, I remember my reaction was, he's
very generous.
New York state looks like a good employer.
What I realized later was that this didn't just fall from the heavens, it was worked
for by the proponents and representatives of workers in the state through the CSEA.
One of the things we talked to CSEA a lot about was workforce planning.
How can we ensure if we can predict that X number of people are going to enter our mental
health and mental retardation facilities, so we know what would be the appropriate size
workforce.
If we know that X are not going to be in our facilities and are going to be going to
out placement facilities or residential homes, what size workforce do we now need for
that and how do we ensure that, how do we train people if they're not going to be working
in the facility, can we find other things that we can train them to do so they can do
work in the residential homes or other places.
So there was a lot of workforce planning that was going on because of the changing demographics
of the state and the workforce and the changing needs of the state.
They did everything.
They were out pumping people's hands.
They were out talking to other people about voting for me.
They did mail drops for me.
They had an old fashioned campaign.
We brought some of them in from the suburbs, frankly, to New York City for the big parades
and they would come in and they would help us to make placards and march up and down
fifth avenue or wherever the parade was.
So it was an old fashioned parade where old fashioned campaign where bodies made the
difference and they made the difference.
And that done it in 1994.
I'd probably still be governor.
The first recollection of CSEA was the three bowling leagues that I had to join when
I was the area of field representative in 1965 so I could meet the people.
There hadn't been a lot of communication.
It seemed to me between the area of field representative and the local chapters at the
time.
So I thought I'd better get out and assimilate a little bit with them.
So I do any three bowling leagues and I remember days when I went to three or four
climbicks in the same day so I could get out and meet some of the folks.
But that's a lot of what CSEA was about in 1965 bowling leagues and climbicks.
I think CSEA's willingness and ability to evolve over time and to assume new roles as situations
changed basically made it survive.
I mean and grow to where it is today which is very, very different than when I knew it back
in the early 70s.
And it's a testament to the people who belong to CSEA and who lead CSEA.
You guys have done a good job.
I enjoyed being a part of CSEA going through this growing period where it went from being
kind of a social club to being a major force in New York State.
When I started my involvement with CSEA it was fun.
When I ended it I was working for a labor organization that was pronounced and anyone
anywhere in this country certainly knows what CSEA is all about now.
That's something that was not the case 35 or 40 years ago when I first got involved.
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