Page 13 - Work Force March 2021

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH: CELEBRATING UNION WOMEN
Perrin: ‘Keep moving forward’
ALBANY — ‘Keep moving forward.’ Those are the words that CSEA Deputy Counsel Leslie Perrin is guided by and mentors by.
Perrin, who
has been with
the CSEA Legal
Department for 20 years, is a strong advocate for women both in our union and in the community.
Her perspective on empowering women began in her formative years. Her parents were both active equal rights and education advocates.
As a child, she would ride along as they campaigned for local and state candidates. They even marched on Washington D.C.
“My mother was involved in the Queens Women’s Network
— bringing me to their annual luncheons,” Perrin said. “That influenced me to go to an all-women’s college (Smith College, class of 1993). I wanted to be in classrooms where young women weren’t afraid to raise their hands, state their opinions or be smart.”
After moving to Albany and beginning work at CSEA, Perrin learned about volunteering at the Capital Region Women’s Employment and Resource Center (WERC) from CSEA President Mary E. Sullivan.
“We helped women back into the workforce after taking time off to raise children or care for family, or women who are ‘underemployed’
to obtain better jobs and further their financial independence,” Perrin said. “I served on the Board for 10 years and I am still involved on the periphery as a member of the Advisory Committee for the
organization.”
She also volunteers for Smith
College and had coached her daughter’s Odyssey of the Mind competition team — a STEM track traditionally taken by boys.
“My best advice [for women and girls] is to keep moving forward,” Perrin said. “There have been many times during my career when I have been the only woman in the room
— or the only female attorney on a case. I am hard-wired with the type of stubbornness that just doesn’t let me give up. Really. Ever. I’ve always been likely to stand in front of a bully, or call out an injustice, and I’ve never been afraid to just walk up and do what I thought was right. I love being able to do that for CSEA members.”
Perrin said she’d like to think that she sets an example others can see and follow, just as she followed examples before her. She recalls
As a single mother of two children, Hudson has taken every opportunity to advance herself so she can become a better provider for her family and a better unionist for members.
“CSEA has opened a lot of doors for me,” said Hudson. “I can say
that I’m very proud to be a part
of a member-driven union that
works hard for their members and I experienced that as a member. Now, I work hard for members as staff.”
Education has been one of
those doors. As a member, Hudson was among the first graduates of CSEA’s Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) Program, which grooms future CSEA activists.
“I needed to feel like I had everything I needed to fight the good fight for members,” said Hudson. She’s also taken courses with the Partnership for Education, the
her parents, female professors and attorneys along the way, but also CSEA women that include Sullivan; former Western Region President Flo Tripi and former CSEA General Counsel Nancy Hoffman.
“I can see how just the past 30 years has made an enormous change in the culture of the union,” Perrin said. “And when I get to work with our members and officers and look at the efforts made to change the workplace opportunities for the people we represent — it makes me very proud to work at CSEA.”
Up ahead for Perrin will be
her role as second chair counsel
for upcoming state contract negotiations. “It is the first time we’ve gone entirely in-house for state negotiations and it is a very exciting opportunity,” she said.
— Jill Asencio
Murphy Institute, a joint Cornell/ CBTU leadership academy and
as staff, she was awarded a full scholarship to the CUNY Murphy School for Labor and Urban Studies.
“I have seen CSEA from both sides of the fence, as a member and staff,” said Hudson.
Hudson readily admits her admiration for the new Vice President, Kamala Harris, and the legendary poet Maya Angelou, but closer to home, one of the women she most admires is Berkley, who is now CSEA’s Executive Vice President.
“She taught me how to fight, how to listen and how to have confidence when it came to management,”
said Hudson. “She instilled such confidence [in me] that when she left, I just fell right in. They were some big shoes, but it was easy. I didn’t miss a beat. I give her kudos for that.”
— David Galarza
Perrin
Hudson: ‘When we sit at the table, we are equal’
MANHATTAN — Since 1980, Adriane Hudson has gone from
a food service worker to union officer and is now union staff, but she feels like she’s never worked a day in her life.
Hudson
After getting a vacation approved, a new supervisor refused to honor it. Despite warnings to avoid meeting management without a union representative, Hudson, who was already active with the union, felt she could make a compelling case. She not only saved her vacation, she found her calling.
“When we sit at the table, we are equal,” said Hudson. “We all put our pants on one leg at a time.”
It’s a lesson she’s also learned when interacting with male colleagues who may erroneously take her gender, intelligence and tenacity for granted. After working alongside then local President Denise Berkley, Hudson rose up the union ranks to eventually become president after Berkley became
the union’s Statewide Secretary, becoming the first Black woman elected statewide in our union.
“I love what I do, so it never feels like work,” said Hudson, a CSEA Labor Relations Specialist who is based in the Metropolitan Region.
That drive initially took Hudson from a 20-hour workweek in
food service at the Brooklyn Developmental Center to a full- time position as a Mental Health Therapy Aide. A disagreement with management during one of her promotions also proved her mettle as a union activist.
March 2021
The Work Force 13