Page 15 - Work Force February 2023

Brown honored for tireless work, awesome responsibility
HOLLAND PATENT — Oneida County Educational Employees Local President John Brown has personified our union’s spirit with
his selfless dedication to CSEA for nearly two decades.
Brown
took the job.”
Brown started as a cleaner at
the Holland Patent Central School District in 1989 and was eventually promoted to head custodian. He got more involved with our union when the unit president at the time retired. Over the past 20 years, Brown has served as unit president and became president of the Oneida Educational Employees Local in 2011.
As a union activist, Brown realizes the impact of his work on his co-workers.
“Union leaders have an awesome responsibility sometimes,” said Brown. “We’re going in to meet with management because someone could lose their job. That’s a pretty awesome responsibility.”
Not one to seek the spotlight, Brown is happy to work behind the scenes to build relationships and find solutions to problems.
“Those things don’t come without you having a decent reputation to go in and have those conversations,” said Brown. “You can’t go in and bang your fist on the table; you have
to have some credibility.”
Brown said the best part of being
involved in our union and becoming a leader is the friends you make along the way.
“The relationships I have with these people is worth more than any award anyone could ever give me,” said Brown. “I’ve made some amazing friends here, not just union friends, but good friends. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for that.”
Helping school workers statewide
Brown tirelessly serves on multiple CSEA statewide, region and local committees, including as chair of CSEA’s Special Local Government Schools Committee.
Since taking the helm of the statewide schools committee, Brown has helped address issues facing school workers, such as safety
and health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic, layoffs and furloughs while schools were remote, publicizing the school bus driver shortage and figuring out the role of school resource officers regarding
school security.
Brown has leaned on his peers’
knowledge and expertise to help create new and innovative ways
to reach CSEA members in school districts and represent them to the best of his ability.
With the insight he’s gained working with schools statewide, Brown said he feels like he’s better able to advocate for workers in smaller districts, including those in his local.
“I’m fortunate my wife is such a terrific person and lets me go and
do the things I feel are important,” said Brown. “There will be a week where there are four nights where I’ll be somewhere else other than home during dinner time.”
Brown, who admits that he ‘likes to win once in a while’ against injustices to union members in his district, also keeps in mind the need to share his knowledge with other members so they can continue our union’s work when he retires.
— Nicholas Newcomb
It’s his devotion to being a union leader that led him to be honored with the 2022 Danny Donohue Leadership Award for the Local Government Division. Brown received the award at the 112th Annual Delegates Meeting in October.
“There were a lot of people in that room (at the CSEA Annual Delegates Meeting) who deserved that award more than me,” said Brown. “I’m flattered and grateful there are people who spoke on my behalf and think that what I do helps others. That’s what I agreed to do when I
Leadership, advocacy and creativity help March succeed
SCHENECTADY — For “consistent leadership
and often unacknowledged work performed by the members she represents, and she has pressed hard to negotiate good contracts with an often cash-strapped, not-for-profit employer,” said Sullivan.
“I am extremely honored, and beyond privileged and amazed to have been picked to receive the award,” said March.
In addition to advocating for members as a union leader, March supports the teachers and staff who run SCAP’s Head Start and Universal Pre-K programs. She also works to strengthen families in the program through counseling and referrals to various community resources.
Every day, March encounters families in need or crisis.
“I see the effects of generational poverty,” said March, who said she is seeing more grandparents with joint custody, as well as families broken
apart by drug addiction and mental health issues.
Since all of SCAP’s funding is federally streamed,
March uses
creativity to help
secure strong contracts that
not only include raises, bonuses and longevity increases, but hold the line on insurance costs.
“When I started in
2001, the only raise
we had was a cost-
of-living adjustment
(COLA),” said
March. “Soon, we
will begin another
round of negotiations and equity and fairness are the guides.”
She is also working to ensure that all workers feel important.
“Everyone deserves to be treated fairly and equitably,” said March. “We are all important to the overall
work done and to work as an effective team, you need to recognize the importance that each person plays. The kitchen staff is just as important as the lead teacher or the managers leading the teams.”
This honor from our union for her work motivates March.
“Being acknowledged tells me what I do is valued, and it helps keep me going to fight the next fight and to
keep standing up for members,” said March.
— Therese Assalian
and constant
advocacy,”
CSEA
Schenectady
County
Community
Action Program
(SCAP) Local
President
Caryn March
was recently honored with our union’s Danny Donohue Leadership Award for the Private Sector.
In presenting the award at our union’s 112th Annual Delegates Meeting in October, CSEA President Mary E. Sullivan described the work March does every day in advocating for members.
“She fully understands the tireless
February 2023
The Work Force 15
March
“Everyone deserves to be treated fairly and equitably. We are all important
to the overall work done and to work as an effective team, you need
to recognize the importance that each person plays.”