New York Rocks Pataki
If you want to make a statement in New York City, it has to be a BIG statement. And, this fall, members of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)/AFSCME Local 1000 wanted to state their frustration over contract negotiations with New York Gov. George Pataki in a big way.
About 2,500 CSEA members staged a “march for respect” at the Brooklyn Bridge in rush hour Sept. 28. Danny Donohue, CSEA president and an AFSCME International vice president, told the audience that “state employees are sick and tired of being treated as second-class citizens.”
“To have a rally of this size shows the discontent of state employees,” says CSEA Region II president and IVP George Boncoraglio, who organized the rally.
The union members are disgusted that the state has racked up a hefty $3 billion surplus, attributed mostly to the productivity of public employees. State employees also sacrificed in the lean years when the state was having serious financial problems. “The governor has repeatedly said that the CSEA workforce is the best workforce anywhere, and it’s time for him to put his money where his mouth is,” says Donohue.
The workers are particularly incensed that the governor and state legislators gave themselves and other top officials hefty raises at the beginning of the year, while stiff-arming state workers at the bargaining table.
Mary Sullivan, CSEA executive vice president and IVP, says the rally was staged to bring attention to the workers’ plight.
“When times were tough, we shouldered more than our fair share of the burden. Now our folks are saying, ‘You got yours. We want ours.’”
CSEA members were joined at the rally by a contingent from New York’s DC 37 and Council 1707.
Josephine LeBeau, executive director of Council 1707 and IVP, also took part, as did AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee, Sec.-Treas. William Lucy and Lee Saunders, DC 37 administrator.
Almost everywhere Pataki appeared in public this summer, he faced a sea of red CSEA T-shirts.
A raucous crowd of CSEA members overwhelmed the governor at the traditional opening of the New York state fair in Syracuse.
Pataki put a new offer on the table a week later: a four-year contract with a 3 percent raise each year, but it also increased the costs of some benefits to members.
“I personally was very pleased that we turned down the offer because we wouldn’t even break even, practically,” states Janice Beaulieu of CSEA Local 610, State University of New York at New Paltz.
“What the Pataki administration gives with one hand it takes away with the other,” says Boncoraglio. “Any offer that includes a raise that will be ultimately eaten up by increases in health insurance is unacceptable.”
By Jimmie Turner
