Page 4 - Work Force July-August 2021

President Mary E. Sullivan in touch with
Long Island Region: WENDI BOWIE (631) 462-0030
Metropolitan Region: DAVID GALARZA (212) 406-2156
Southern Region: JESSICA LADLEE (845) 831-1000
Capital Region: THERESE ASSALIAN (518) 782-4400
Central Region: NICHOLAS NEWCOMB (315) 728-3375
Western Region: OVE OVERMYER (716) 691-6555
Headquarters: JILL ASENCIO (518) 257-1276
WorkForce ISSN 1522-1091
Official publication of
CSEA Local 1000, AFSCME, AFL-CIO 143 Washington Ave. Albany, NY 12210-2303
Mary E. Sullivan, President
MARK M. KOTZIN
Director of Communications and Publisher
MATHEW L. CANTORE Deputy Director of Communications
JANICE GAVIN Editor
JASON D. HOSIER Graphic Production Specialist
BETH MCINTYRE Graphic Production Specialist
JOELLE LUCENTE Communications Assistant
CommuniCations speCialists
Karen Bright
Tim Finnigan Michele Kiuber
Marnie Rounds Marie Snyder Chris Vogel
The Publications Committee:
The Work Force (USPS 0445-010)
is published monthly by
The CSEA Publication Office:
143 Washington Ave., Albany, NY 12210. Periodical Mail Postage paid at
Post Office,
Albany, New York 12288,
and additional mailing offices.
Postmaster: Send address changes to: CSEA, Attn: Membership Department, 143 Washington Ave., Albany, NY 12210
Readers: Send any comments, complaints, suggestions or ideas to: Publisher, The Work Force
143 Washington Avenue
Albany, NY 12210-2303
CSEA online: cseany.org or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube:
facebook.com/csealocal1000 twitter.com/csealocal1000 instagram.com/cseany1000 youtube.com/csealocal1000
The
WorkForce
Political Action
power stems from
our involvement
SIisters and Brothers:
that our union shouldn’t be involved in politics or political action. Many members think it’s all about endorsing candidates for elective office. That’s just one small part.
important victories this past legislative session.
’ve heard from members over the years
We were able to pass legislation that protects highway workers in their work zones, ensures child care workers get timely subsidy payments through direct deposit, improves staffing ratios for nursing home workers, protects direct care jobs in OPWDD and provides certain veterans additional credit toward Civil Service examinations.
The real strength of our union political action, however, is our ability to use
our collective “people power” to exert influence with elected officials. This happens when we come together and
We also prevented several bills from being passed which would have negatively impacted CSEA members.
get involved to push for legislation that benefits working families, or against legislation that would harm us.
I hope this helps you better understand the important work we’ve accomplished together through political action. Thankfully, whenever we ask for your involvement, many of you step up to fight the good fight. Because our terms of employment and working conditions are set by elected officials, we can’t afford to sit these fights out.
Our power comes from when we
all take time to write a letter, send a
text or email, or make a phone call to our representatives to let them know how legislation will either help or
harm us. Maybe we take further action like attending a rally, talking to our representative in person, or sharing information with our fellow members in social media posts. There are so many ways we can make our voices heard.
I thank every member who took the time to get involved in our political fights. Working together, we made our voices heard and flexed the political muscle that none of us have individually. That’s what our union allows us to do.
Our union works hard to make this easy for you, by sharing information to educate members on the important issues we’re fighting and providing tools like our new online Legislative Action Center, which allows you to easily contact your elected officials with just a few mouse clicks.
In Solidarity,
Mary E. Sullivan, President
4 The Work Force
July-August 2021
Our collective involvement makes the difference. Because of it, we won some