Proud to Serve America
At 67, Dan Mazus is still busy organizing. Retired from his job in 2001 as assistant county manager with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation — before that he was an equipment operator for 33 years — Mazus has continued to help grow his union.
Three AFSCME members who serve the nation with pride and purpose.
By Jon Melegrito
Reaching Out to Retirees
Dan Mazus | Retiree/Activist, Retiree Chapter 13
PHOTO CREDIT: Lynne Kirk
At 67, Dan Mazus is still busy organizing. Retired from his job in 2001 as assistant county manager with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation — before that he was an equipment operator for 33 years — Mazus has continued to help grow his union. Organizing gets the adrenalin flowing, says Mazus, who signed up steelworkers in New Jersey before joining AFSCME in 1971, trained volunteers for political action in his county’s Democratic Party, and — as president of Local 2146 (Council 13) — recruited members to lobby at the state capitol.
Elected president of the Retired Public Employees of Pennsylvania/AFSCME Retiree Chapter 13 in 2004, he has grown its membership from 4,500 to 12,000 in less than two years. “We did it by reaching out to pensioners throughout the state,” Mazus explains. “We also enrolled our members’ spouses.” The first to sign up was his wife, Carolyn, who now serves as chapter secretary.
“No rocking chairs for us,” points out Mazus, who keeps the retirees busy by activating the 32 subchapters under his wing to make phone calls to their lawmakers, participate in AFSCME lobby campaigns — such as the Social Security rally at the U.S. Capitol — and meet with elected officials in local districts, in Harrisburg or Washington, D.C. “Once you retire, nobody represents you except yourself. If we have no clout, we have no power.” That, he says, is why it’s so important for pub lic retirees to join AFSCME retiree chapters — to be represented and to find strength in numbers.
Plowing Ahead
Martin Jacinto | Snow Plow Driver, Local 158 (Council 76)
PHOTO CREDIT: John Salsbury
If you don’t like the weather, wait a few hours and it will change,” is an old Colorado saying. For many years, the saying held true — especially during heavy snowfalls when residents would plow themselves out, knowing the sunshine would take care of the rest.
“But we’ve gotten the brunt of not one, but a series of snowstorms this year, including one storm that closed the Denver International Airport for several days in December,” says Martin Jacinto, an equipment operator specialist with the state’s Department of Transportation. A member of Local 158 (Council 76), Jacinto normally spends most of his time driving a one-man “road patcher” — one of only four in the entire nation — as he plies the city’s main thoroughfares and side roads filling holes.
This year, however, he has spent more hours operating a 26,000-pound, eight-wheel snowplow than at any other time in his seven years with DOT. “I’ve been putting in 12-hour shifts since we got more than 26 inches last December,” Jacinto recalls. “I’ve probably driven more than 100 miles clearing up to six lanes of road and spreading de-icer salt just in the last four weeks. But it’s a job I have to do to keep the city moving smoothly. I care about making the streets safe,” Jacinto says proudly. “And I go about it by knowing my routes and doing the patching or the plowing in the most efficient way I know. It could mean the difference between a fatal accident or a safe trip home.”
Pride in a Uniform
Bridgette Duncan | Corrections Officer, Local 6550 (OCSEA)/AFSCME Local 11
PHOTO CREDIT: Allen Zak
Bridgette Duncan still remembers her daughter’s question five years ago. “Mommy, why do you always get to wear a uniform? I want my mom to look like mom.” A corrections officer at the Pickaway Correctional Institution for 11 years, Duncan was dressing for work when the 7-year-old girl made her query. “That caught me off guard,” Duncan recalls. “But it gave me a chance to explain what I do, that wearing the uniform enhances my authority as an officer.” Then she assured her daughter: “But I am still your mommy even if I don’t look like one when I go to work.”
A former U.S. Army reservist with 20 years of distinguished service, Duncan is used to wearing uniforms. But she also wears a wealth of experience, not only to her job but also to her many leadership roles in the union. As secretary-treasurer of Local 6550 of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association/AFSCME Local 11, Duncan also serves on the labor/management committee. She’s very much involved in a mentorship program, one designed to improve work performance and enhance supervisor/employee relations. She basically “trains the trainers” to ensure that new hires are properly taught, especially in handling firearms. On occasion, she gets invited to speak before heads of state agencies, who want to learn more about Pickaway’s programs.
Busier than ever, CO Duncan still finds time to sign up new members. “I wait for them outside the gate at the end of my shift,” she says. “And in everything I do, I give it 100 percent effort — including being mommy to my kids.”
