Page 2 - Work_Force_May_2018

Photo of the Month
Watertown officials continue safety improvements
Photo by Mark M. Kotzin
ALERT
CSEA President Danny Donohue to meet
with Western, Capital Region members
CSEA President Danny Donohue will visit the CSEA Western and
Capital regions to meet with our members.
Western Region: Donohue will visit the CSEA Western Region
on Wednesday, May 16. The meetings will be held from 1 p.m. to
6:45 p.m. at the Radisson Hotel Corning, 125 Denison Parkway
East, Corning. Please call the region office at (716) 691-6555 for an appointment and directions.
Capital Region: Donohue will visit the CSEA Capital Region on Wednesday, June 13. The meetings will be held from noon to 5 p.m. at our Plattsburgh Satellite Office at 6 Booth Dr., Plattsburgh. Please call the satellite office at (518) 563-0761 for an appointment and directions.
Library Clerk LaShonda Hill helps a young patron find a game piece in the children’s section of the Onondaga County Public Library’s Central Library in Syracuse.
CSEA mourns loss of activist Sue Brill
WATKINS GLEN — CSEA is mourning the loss of Schuyler County activist Sue Brill, 57, who died suddenly on March 27.
reported the incident to our union as she was hiding under her desk.
She helped facilitate our investigation and subsequent response to the shooting. The incident eventually led to work site security reforms in public offices in our state.
“Sue was as dedicated an activist as they come. Our prayers and condolences go out to Sue’s friends, family and co-workers,” Central Region President Colleen Wheaton said. “She will be missed by many throughout our union.”
As this edition went to press, friends and co-workers were planning a celebration of Brill’s life on May 5, from noon to 4 p.m. at the Watkins Glen Performing Arts Center at the Middle School Apartments. All who knew Brill are welcome to attend.
— Mark M. Kotzin
WATERTOWN — City of Watertown officials continue to make safety improvements following the workplace death of CSEA member Gregory Eliopoulos.
Eliopoulos, a process worker at the city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant, died in November 2017
when he was struck by a fitting from a high-pressure line.
The resulting investigation by the state Department of Labor’s Public Employee Safety and Health (PESH) Bureau found numerous violations that contributed to the incident.
Since that time, CSEA’s Occupational Safety and Health Department, city officials and the plant’s workers have been working cooperatively to remediate those violations, and recently the PESH
Bureau confirmed all the violations were corrected.
CSEA Occupational Safety and Health Specialist Joshua Kemp said CSEA has been satisfied with the city’s cooperation.
“On the plant level, both
workers and management have worked together to create safety programs that go above and beyond requirements. They took what they had and what they’ve learned and created exceptional programs, which they intend to expand moving forward,” Kemp said. “We give them credit for taking the worst situation imaginable and working with us
to make positive improvements to ensure this type of tragedy never happens again.”
— Mark M. Kotzin
Brill had
worked for the
county for 35
years, including for its Department of Social Services. She served in several CSEA leadership roles, including
as the Schuyler County Local and Administrative Unit president.
Brill was known as a strong member advocate, especially when it came to workplace security.
In October 1992, Brill was serving as unit president when an angry ‘deadbeat dad’ murdered four of her Social Services co-workers before turning his gun on himself. Brill
2 The Work Force
May 2018
Brill
May 15 is deadline for submitting proposed
rPesolutions, changes to CSEA’s Constitution & Bylaws
roposed resolutions and proposed headquarters and region offices. amendments to the CSEA Proposed resolutions and proposed
Constitution & Bylaws for consideration by CSEA delegates to the union’s 2018 Regular Delegates Meeting must be submitted by May 15, 2018.
Proposed resolutions or proposed amendments may be submitted only by a delegate and must be submitted on the proper forms which are available from the Statewide Secretary’s Office at CSEA
amendments to the Constitution & Bylaws must be submitted no later than May 15, 2018, to Statewide Secretary Denise Berkley, CSEA Headquarters, 143 Washington Ave., Albany, N.Y. 12210-2303.
The 2018 Regular Delegates Meeting will be held Oct. 29 to Nov. 2 in New York City.