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Top PEOPLE recruiter Casey Walpole knows what’s at stake
OSWEGO — While hundreds of our members at SUNY Oswego recently lined up for information tables to learn more about member-only benefits, CSEA SUNY Oswego Local Secretary Casey Walpole called over as many
of her co-workers as she could, convincing them to contribute to our union’s Public Employees Organized to Promote Legislative Equality (PEOPLE) program.
Her efforts not only garnered her
the title of PEOPLE Recruiter of the
Month for January but, more importantly, helped us strengthen our ability to protect workers like those at SUNY Oswego and around the state.
CSEA and AFSCME’s PEOPLE program protect and improve our jobs, benefits and pensions
in Washington, Albany and in your community. Your support and participation in PEOPLE strengthens our clout in the workplace, in the legislature, in your community and in the labor
movement.
Walpole, an office assistant at the
college’s Associate Vice President for Facility Services’ office, also serves as Central Region 2nd vice president, and is the adviser to our Central Region PEOPLE Committee.
As such, Walpole recognizes the value of contributing to the program and eagerly signs up new members. At a recent local membership meeting, she joined PEOPLE Coordinator Denise Felt in talking up the advantages of
contributing to more than 200 campus workers. “Basically, we talked to them about Janus v.
AFSCME Council 31 and we told them what it could mean to them and their benefits, and what it could mean to the contract,” Walpole said. “It’s about contract security. If we lose our union and we lose our contract, we lose everything.”
Walpole said the message seemed to resonate with many of the workers.
“They seemed to understand that there are troubles ahead of us and that we needed to have a voice in order to fight them,” she said. “We
told them that big business is taking over and we need to have someone stand up for us.”
Walpole said she was one of the original CSEA members to join the PEOPLE program when
it first started in the mid 1980s. “I felt it was important back then, and I’ve been a member ever since,” she said. “I plan on [continuing to contribute after] I retire.”
Walpole said she likens the cost of contributing to PEOPLE to purchasing a fast- food meal. “I always say it’s a trip to McDonald’s to save your benefits,” she said. “I think that’s really reasonable.”
The bottom line? “It’s an important program that we have to fight for our rights,” she said. “For that small investment, you can protect your union rights.”
— Mark M. Kotzin
Walpole
Hero bus driver honored
Paid screening leave
expands to all forms
of cancer
As of March 18, 2018, CSEA members covered under New York Civil Service Law will be eligible to take up to four hours of paid leave for all cancer screenings without charges to leave credits.
While an earlier version of the cancer screening law entitled employees to take up to four hours of paid leave annually for breast or prostate cancer screening, the new law expands the paid leave with no accrual charges to screening for all types of cancer.
Employees are entitled to leave, or to
have credits restored upon submission of satisfactory documentation that the employee’s absence was for purposes of cancer screening.
The benefit may be used once per calendar year and does not carry over if unused.
Employees are entitled to leave for cancer screening during normal working hours, and
do not need to seek time and attendance coverage. If the screenings exceed four hours in a calendar year, the employee will be required to charge leave time for the difference.
Cancer screening includes physical
examinations, blood work or other laboratory tests for the detection of cancer. Travel time is included in the four hours.
“I urge all eligible CSEA members to take advantage of this important law,” CSEA President Danny Donohue said. “You never know when a cancer screening could end up saving your own life.”
Any questions about these provisions should be referred to the state Department of Civil Service’s Attendance and Leave Unit at 518-457-2295.
SHERMAN — Sherman Central School District
bus driver and CSEA member David Tenpas
was recently honored for his heroic efforts in protecting the safety and security of students who were involved in a bus fire.
As noted in the February Work Force, after the school bus that he was driving malfunctioned, Tenpas moved quickly to get about a dozen schoolchildren off the bus before it burst into flames. No one was injured during the Jan. 4 incident.
Tenpas was honored by both the Sherman Central School District Board of Education and the Chautauqua County Legislature. In photo, Tenpas receives a proclamation while being flanked by Chautauqua County Legislators Christine Starks and David Himelien.
— Ove Overmyer
14 The Work Force March 2018