‘Start Spreading the News...’
By Jon Melegrito
New York City
Fifteen hundred AFSCME members met here in mid-November to melt away the blues, declare their determination to push their and the union’s agenda and pay tribute to "everyday heroes."
Undeterred by another plane crash only four days earlier, they gathered for AFSCME’s Eastern Women’s Conference, boosting the spirit of a bruised city that’s still reeling from the events of Sept. 11.
Spending an estimated $1.5 million, AFSCME became the first major organization to relocate a conference or convention to the Big Apple. Al Roker of NBC’s "Today Show" acknowledged the union’s presence when several delegates showed up outside the network’s studio. U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton welcomed the gesture as well. "You’ve got so much energy flowing!" Clinton told the delegates in her address. Clinton came out strongly for "doing everything we can" in behalf of New York workers displaced by the terrorist attacks. But, she declared, the economic stimulus package proposed by the Republicans "does not help the people who need help the most. We need the right economic policy to get the economy going again."
Best ever
The conference, described by Pres. Gerald W. McEntee as "the best ever," drew members from as far away as Washington state. Many came by plane; others by train. Local 749 Chief Steward Carrie Parker of Council 4 says being in New York showed that "we’re determined not to let the terrorists run our lives." Parker shopped at Macy’s and then took her family to a Broadway show. She’s even more resolute now to fight for 285 Connecticut state court reporters who are involved in a four-year campaign to increase their page rate. "Knowing what public servants did at Ground Zero has gotten us all fired up," she declares.
Gloria Osner of Sarasota, Fla., engaged in an animated discussion with New Yorker Magda de Jesús, president of Local 1219 (DC 37). "I did not let fear stop me from coming," Osner told her new friend. "But the cab drive from the airport was scary." Replied de Jesús: "It’s great that you could come and share with us."
And share they did, splurging in a city that’s badly in need of cash. But they also spent time at the St. Francis Breadline serving breakfast to the city’s neediest — in honor of Father Mychal F. Judge, the firefighter’s chaplain who died in the attack on the World Trade Center.
Everyday heroes
Moreover, AFSCME handed out $10,000 checks each to families of the nine victims as a "first installment" to cover emergency expenses. Promising to raise more for its September 11 Fund, McEntee invoked Mother Jones: "Sisters and brothers, even as we mourn our dead, let’s move forward and fight like hell for the living."
In that spirit, members gave a standing ovation to three "everyday heroes" whose unions recently won important victories: Pat Harris, chief steward of Local 626 (Council 26), for winning an equal pay effort for Capitol Hill custodial workers; Annette Gonzalez, president of Servidores Públicos Unidos/AFSCME Local 132 in Puerto Rico, for organizing 7,500 new members; and Janet Bewly, an organizer with Council 62, for leading the fight to win collective bargaining rights in Kentucky.
For Maggie Blanch, Marion Wolf and Nina Miller — Pennsylvania retirees who drove up from Philadelphia in a van — the loud cheering and clapping inside the hotel evoked memories of the time they shut down the state for three days in 1978. "It was one of the first public employee strikes in the United States," says Blanch, recalling a moment of triumph. "It’s always been up to us. If you want something done, you get the women to do it."
