Profiles in Dignity: Making Progress One Victory at a Time
Former CSEA Pres. Joe McDermott took wins big or small.
SARATOGA, NEW YORK
New York Gov. Mario Cuomo (D) had it all worked out with state legislators: To meet the financially ailing state’s budget for 1989, they’d use surplus funds of the state employees’ pension fund.
Joe McDermott, then president of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)/AFSCME Local 1000, was the first to smell a rat and filed suit against the state controller Ned Reagan to block the action. McDermott vs. Reagan would become a landmark case that not only saved New York’s public employee pension fund from raiding politicians, but also set a legal precedent that would save other threatened pension funds around the country.
“Joe grasped the severity of the situation,” says Danny Donohue, CSEA president today and an AFSCME International vice president. “He was a bulldog, and let politicians know that, regardless of party, we aren’t going to let them endanger our members’ rights or retirees’ well being.”
As CSEA president from 1988 to 1994, McDermott oversaw one of the most critical and difficult times in the union’s history, when public employees took a battering from politicians, who looked for scapegoats in a crumbling state economy.
In addition to the attempt to pillage retiree funds, the governor initiated a payroll delay for state employees. McDermott filed suit against that one too. Finally, CSEA and the state settled out of court, providing the state some payroll relief, but in a way that was less burdensome for state workers.
Time after time, the Cuomo administration threatened layoffs and other cost-cutting measures. Time after time, McDermott and CSEA fought back, and most of the time, they won.
Many believe that CSEA successfully fought off the relentless attacks because of the organizational emphasis that marked McDermott’s union leadership.
“Joe knew that we had to modernize,” says Donohue, who believes CSEA benefits today because “McDermott made sure our foundation was a solid one.” From the earliest days of his union activism, he focused on procedures and lobbied to get rid of unnecessary union rules. His approach was determined, and mostly low key.
During McDermott’s 30 years of CSEA leadership, Donohue notes, “Joe wasn’t the flamboyant type, not the self-promoting Labor leader. You could take him for granted for all the things he did behind the scenes.
“Joe brought in a bright, young staff and brought us into the computer age, improving efficiency and getting things done faster,” Donohue continues. “As an organization with limited resources, we have to be progressive. He grasped that modernization would get members the information and benefits they needed on time.” In fact, more than anything, McDermott believed that a union has to deliver.
As a young engineer, he was elected president of the Department of Transportation’s main office unit in the early 1960s. There, he remembers, “No one had filed a grievance in seven years, even though there were a lot of complaints. It was more of a social organization.
“I went in and filed grievances on three big problems that I thought we could win. We won, and people saw that we could do something.” In five years, unit membership doubled; 99 percent of the eligible employees had joined CSEA ranks.
McDermott was happy to nurture success one victory — however small — at a time. “I’m a nickel-and-dime guy. Sure, I want to get the dollar, but it’s all right to take it in smaller pieces, if it makes sense. Most times, whether in political action or negotiation, overambition kills a goal.”
His patience allowed him to maneuver the dicey political arena, and he was a strong advocate of political action. “It is probably more important than negotiations,” he believes. “You can’t get everything through legislation, but you can exert a lot of pressure and create a lot of good will by working for candidates and putting up candidates of your own.”
McDermott points out that it took many years to get some benefits that CSEA sought. Securing a provision for mandatory union shops for local government took 13 years. “It was almost 20 years from the time we got contract language stipulating state-provided space for day care facilities to getting day care as available as it is today,” he notes. Still nickel and diming, “We just kept improving the language over the years.”
Other benefits achieved during his leadership years include free college scholarships for children whose parents are killed on the job and the ability to donate leave time for fellow employees. He promoted — and got implemented — one of the first employee assistance programs in the country.
McDermott began his long public employee career as an office clerk. Then, transferring to engineering, his field of study, he rose through the ranks of state government. Simultaneously, he rose in union position — from unit representative, to unit president, to regional president and then to the top of CSEA, where he led AFSCME’s largest local, with its 265,000 members, including retirees. He also became an International vice president, serving for 16 years.
McDermott attributes his successful union career to “being in the right place at the right time” and his inability to keep quiet when he saw something wrong. “I was a rebel, I guess, and I saw in collectivism the ability to get something done, to change things.”
Retired from CSEA leadership in 1994 and from AFSCME in 1996, McDermott is enjoying a quieter life, especially the summers in New York’s beautiful lake country. “Retire early, if you can,” he advises. “I miss the people, my union very much. But not the work!
“If you’re serious [as a union leader] and care about your people, you carry the weight of the world.”
By Catherine Barnett Alexander
