Nuts to Pataki

Albany, New York

Using posters, postcards and even peanuts, Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)/AFSCME Local 1000 members are doing it all to protest Gov. George Pataki’s latest so-called contract wage offer of 0 percent for four years. The workers have been without a contract since April 1.

To bring attention to their plight, CSEA members participated in mobilization efforts around the state from Buffalo to Long Island. At one rally, angry members singing their rendition of Aretha Franklin’s hit song “Respect,” circled Pataki’s office at the State Capitol in Albany with a garland made from 40,000 signed postcards.

Every step of the way CSEA Pres. Danny Donohue, an International vice president, has long vowed that CSEA members — who drive snowplows, maintain highways and provide clerical assistance in state offices and institutions — will not work for “peanuts.”

The theme of peanuts has become symbolic in the union’s escalated campaign with the inclusion of “Mr. Peanut,” a larger-than-life-sized puppet. CSEA unveiled Mr. Peanut who often travels the state popping up at Pataki’s public appearances. Mr. Peanut passes out small bags of “Peanuts from Pataki” with four peanuts inside, one for each year in the bogus contract offer.

Even though Mr. Peanut was unable to make an appearance in Montana where Pataki spoke before a Republican audience, AFSCME members there greeted the governor with another in-your-face bag of — you guessed it — Peanuts from Pataki.