Fifty-six years ago, President John F. Kennedy gave his famed inaugural address, where he challenged the American people with this famous phrase: “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”
Eight years later, in response to a direct challenge from President Kennedy, our country achieved a new level of greatness when we became the first nation to successfully land on the moon. I don’t want to admit it, but I can still remember watching the landing on TV like it was yesterday.
Getting to the moon required not only a tremendous amount of work, but a certain level of public support from the American people. Failed mission after failed mission, with the Soviet Union making large strides toward the same goal, it might have felt easier just to give up. But we persisted, because we believed in what we could achieve together, even in those dark days of doubt.
Lately, I have been asked by some of our members, “What has the union done for me lately?” And I can understand a lot of the frustration people are feeling: working in civil service is more difficult than it has ever been. State budget cuts have meant longer hours and stagnant pay. Management is more difficult than ever to deal with. More and more jobs are being given to temporary or hourly workers. We see it. And a passionate group of us are out there, trying our best to fight these cuts, take on poor management, and fight against attrition of union jobs. Sadly, every year, there are fewer and fewer of us, and it gets harder and harder to be effective.
When I hear the question, “What has the union done for me lately?” I want to respond as Kennedy would have.
Our union is not an entity separate from you; you wash its face every morning. Our union is you, and every one of your co-workers. Our union is only as powerful as our members make it. If you are unhappy with your local or unit leadership, run for office and change it. Local and unit elections are happening this year. Or, at the very least, VOTE.
If you are upset with what the state is doing with civil service, join a CSEA political action committee. In addition to our statewide and region committees, many of our locals and units also have committees. It’s a great way to use your voice to work toward real change.
If you are unhappy with management: pull together your co-workers and make a stand — together. Right-to-Work is bearing down on us, and the governor’s administration is proposing even more cuts for the 2017-18 budget year. Now is not the time for us to sit back and wait for someone else to act.
Our union isn’t perfect (we’re all human, after all), and we’ve had a few failed missions here and there — I won’t deny that. But, in the face of adversity, we persist because we believe in what we can achieve together.
