Capital Region members hold job fair to recruit public workers

GLENS FALLS — CSEA Capital Region members recently coordinated a job fair to match public employers with prospective employees.

The region held the Staff the Front Lines job fair as a way to help increase worker recruitment and retention.

From left to right, City of Glens Falls Unit member David Warner, Town of Queensbury Unit President Scott Rowland and South Glens Falls School District Unit President Kelly Powers staff a job fair welcome table at Cool Insuring Arena.

The job fair was held at the Cool Insuring Arena on the same day as a home Adirondack Thunder hockey game. The built-in audience for the popular minor league team boosted attendance for the job fair. More than 500 people visited 13 tables with employers from state agencies, school districts, towns and counties in Warren, Washington and Saratoga counties.

Fifteen CSEA members-volunteers staffed the event, driving traffic with fun giveaways and a selfie station while promoting public employment and the benefits of a union.

Taking action

The idea for the job fair stemmed from discussion during a plenary session at the Fall 2023 Capital Region conference.

During that session, members voiced frustration with chronic understaffing, heavy workloads and mandatory overtime. Demands for the services CSEA members provide is hard to sustain with so many vacant positions in state agencies and local governments across the state.

Our union is addressing recruitment and retention both through contract negotiations and through legislative efforts that include continuous civil service recruitment exams, waiving civil service exam fees and requiring more broad posting of competitive exams. However, attendees wanted to take more immediate and direct action.

CSEA Executive Vice President Ron Briggs, who was serving as Capital Region President when the conference was held, led the session’s discussion. He created the Staff The Front Lines task force on the spot from volunteers at the conference. Meetings took place late fall and in January. Within four months of the conference and initial discussions, the job fair took place.

Capital Region task force committee member Stu Whipple helped with planning and staffing for the event.

“This Region 4 inaugural job fair was a great success and we met many potential new union employees and new members,” said Whipple. “We also met some great fellow CSEA members from different schools and counties. Having these events is very important. CSEA has a role to play in recruiting new members as well as retaining the members we have.”

— Therese Assalian