Page 7 - Work Force January 2025

After assault, our union seeking solution to address safety
BROOKLYN — A recent early morning assault of a female worker at Kingsboro Psychiatric Center
by an individual has renewed calls by CSEA to improve safety at the facility.
“This should
have never
happened,” said
CSEA Kingsboro
Psychiatric Center
Local President
Conrad Forsythe.
“We need to have
a meeting with the
administration
and our union and
we need to come up with a solution jointly.”
According to Forsythe, the victim works as a mental health therapy aide. At the time of the assault,
she was working in a Temporary Living Residence (TLR) at which the individual was also residing.
There are three such facilities
on the Kingsboro grounds that are supposed to allow individuals to eventually transition out of the center and into the community. Forsythe noted that TLRs have come under intense scrutiny in the past,
however, for not enforcing rules and allowing individuals to come and go as they please.
Details of the incident are under investigation, as this edition went
to press. Kingsboro Pyschiatric Center security staff responded to the incident and called the New York Police Department (NYPD). Police arrested the individual.
The victim was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was treated and released.
CSEA is deploying every available resource to the worker, including through the CSEA Employee Benefit Fund’s (EBF) workplace security benefit administered through Pearl Insurance, which covers members who experience certain types of workplace violence.
Forsythe noted that the individual involved in this assault has a history of infractions and has been at the facility for at least 17 years.
“There are complaints about him,” said Forsythe. “This is not his first go-around.”
Violent incidents at Kingsboro have increased, said Forsythe, who added that at any one time there are several staff out on workers’
compensation, including one worker who was attacked and now has five stitches on their head and another whose jaw was dislocated.
The Work Force will provide more coverage of the recent Kingsboro assault in an upcoming edition.
Working on solutions
Unfortunately, workplace violence is not isolated to Kingsboro; reports of violent incidents are all too common across New York state. CSEA makes combatting workplace violence a top priority.
There are many ways in which CSEA can and will work with employers to prevent workplace violence, including maintaining proper staffing levels.
“(Short) staffing is definitely an issue,” said Forsythe, as is the need for proper training of staff to not only prevent violence but what to do in these situations.
At Buffalo Psychiatric Center, our union is working with other unions and state Office of Mental Health administrators to improve workplace safety and minimize potential hazards, following an April attack that seriously injured three workers,
Kingsboro Psychiatric Center in Brooklyn.
including a CSEA member. Together, Buffalo Psychiatric
Center workers and center management established improved safety measures that include residential sign-in procedure, installation of additional cameras in units and duress alarms for all residential service units. They continue to work on further measures to minimize potential hazards.
For more information about how your employer can help you stay as safe as possible at work, visit cseany.org/safety.
— David Galarza and Sydney Thomas
Sinicropi were stalling the process and wasting taxpayer money.
Laskoski put forth a resolution to recognize all titles, including the code enforcement title, as to not waste more time and money. The resolution failed 2-2 (one councilmember abstained).
The next state Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) conference is scheduled for January 7. CSEA believes PERB will rule with the organizing workers and acknowledge the code enforcement title and move this process to the bargaining table.
— Nicholas Newcomb
SENECA FALLS — For Town of Seneca Falls workers organizing their union with CSEA, town management saying one thing and doing another has become a regular occurrence.
Town workers are standing firm, citing ineffective leadership by town officials. Although Seneca Falls Supervisor Frank Schmitter said an agreement was very close at a recent Town Board meeting, town officials have behaved otherwise.
To date, CSEA has filed two improper practice charges for workers being illegally targeted by management. The town’s primary union-busting tactic is its attempt to
exclude the town code enforcement officer from the bargaining unit. Peter Porcelli, the zoning and
code enforcement officer, was one of the leaders of this organizing effort that began last summer.
“Not including the code enforcement officer is just another baseless excuse to delay recognition of our union,” said Shawn Van Gee,
a machine equipment operator at
the town’s Highway Department. “In Seneca County, code enforcement officers and senior code enforcement officers are part of the union.”
“CSEA represents this title in Seneca County and across the state,”
said CSEA Central Region President Kenny Greenleaf. “Management is actively trying to stop these workers from exercising their rights by excluding one of the leaders of this organizing effort. This is textbook union busting and we will not stand for it.”
Workers continue to maintain
the position of inclusion despite continued attempts to fracture their unity.
At a recent town board meeting on Tuesday, Councilmember Kaitlyn Laskoski publicly defended town workers and acknowledged that Schmitter and Councilmember Frank
January 2025
The Work Force 7
Forsythe
Town workers fighting union busting efforts