Educate, motivate, activate: Conference brings together on-site, online approaches

SARATOGA SPRINGS — CSEA officers, members and staff recently joined together to get educated, motivated and activated at the union’s biennial Conference on Occupational Safety and Health.

About 500 officers, members and staff attended the conference on-site, the first time in more than two years that CSEA members have been able to come together in-person for a statewide event.

This year’s conference had a twist: hundreds of members and staff also participated in many of the same conference programs virtually. The remote option was offered to help ensure COVID safety protocols.

Whether members attended on-site or online, the message was still the same — safety and health is more important than ever.

“The majority of CSEA’s members were on the job, some working extraordinarily long hours, short staffed, short on supplies and short on appreciation for their service and their sacrifice,” CSEA President Mary E. Sullivan told attendees. “So, I say to you, brothers and sisters, thank you for what you’ve done over the past two years to keep this wonderful state of ours running.”

Educate, motivate, activate!

Conference workshops were designed to help attendees develop skills and knowledge to make more effective safety and health activists.

In addition to programs addressing COVID-19, program topics included active shooter incidents, workplace injury prevention, preventing opioid use injury and workplace violence and bullying.

CSEA Senior Counsel
Eric Wilke presents
about whistleblower and
discrimination rights.

Vincent Rosillo, managing partner at Fine, Olin & Anderman, presents about workers’ compensation rights.

In one plenary session, attendees learned about legal safety and health rights, including workers’ compensation rights. Presenters included Vincent Rosillo, managing partner at Fine Olin & Anderman, and CSEA Senior Counsel Eric Wilke.

During the conference’s closing session, activists heard from CSEA Director of CSEA Member Engagement Adam Acquario on how important it is to remind members that a strong union is key to protecting workplace safety and health.

Mourn for the dead; fight for the living

The Workers Memorial Day observation, traditionally held during the conference, also took a different approach due to CSEA members lost to COVID-19.

Standing
Occupational
Safety and Health
Committee Chair
Jane Meunier
welcomes
attendees to a
plenary session.

“In past years, we would honor the lives of a handful of CSEA brothers and sisters,” said Jane Meunier, CSEA Standing Occupational Safety and Health Committee chair. “This year, we honor an unknown number of lost, but not forgotten.”

Attendees were encouraged to write the names of fallen brothers and sisters on large posterboards for each region. At the memorial ceremony, Standing OSH Committee members brought the boards in and placed them front of the podium as a memorial.

CSEA Occupational
Safety and Health
Department Director
Matthew Kozak speaks
at the conference.

CSEA Occupational Safety and Health Department Director Matthew Kozak, while addressing attendees, said the department had conducted 100 fatality investigations from March 2020 through June 2020. By comparison, an average year sees four or five member fatality investigations.

The difference between occupational injuries and occupational illnesses has come into focus, and the need to focus much more on occupational illnesses has made itself clear.

The need for active and effective safety and health committees was also apparent, with the message that those members whose workplaces had strong safety and health committees fared better during the pandemic than those without.

CSEA members are encouraged to contact local or unit leadership, or their CSEA region office to learn more about safety and health committees in the workplace.

Attendees were also encouraged to share the knowledge they gained at the conference with members and co-workers, as well as work to ensure management makes workplace safety and health a top prority.

“In many ways, we can emerge from the ordeal being stronger for this experience, ready to use what we’ve learned to be prepared for what may come in the future,” Sullivan said. “Learn all you can, be empowered by what you learn and share your knowledge with those you work with and care for.”

— Mathew L. Cantore and Jill Asencio

Standing Occupational Safety and Health Committee
Jane Meunier, Chair
Thomas Skabry, Long Island Region
Deborah Hanna, Metropolitan Region
Guy Bilyou, Southern Region
John LeFebvre, Capital Region
Thomas Hingher, Central Region
James D’Amico, Western Region
Matthew Kozak, Committee Adviser
Mary E. Sullivan, Officer Liaison