Walpole
OSWEGO — While hundreds of our members at SUNY Oswego recently lined up for information tables to learn more about member-only benefits, CSEA SUNY Oswego Local Secretary Casey Walpole called over as many of her co-workers as she could, convincing them to contribute to our union’s Public Employees Organized to Promote Legislative Equality (PEOPLE) program.
Her efforts not only garnered her the title of PEOPLE Recruiter of the Month for January but, more importantly, helped us strengthen our ability to protect workers like those at SUNY Oswego and around the state.
CSEA and AFSCME’s PEOPLE program protect and improve our jobs, benefits and pensions in Washington, Albany and in your community. Your support and participation in PEOPLE strengthens our clout in the workplace, in the legislature, in your community and in the labor movement.
Walpole, an office assistant at the college’s Associate Vice President for Facility Services’ office, also serves as Central Region 2nd vice president, and is the adviser to our Central Region PEOPLE Committee.
As such, Walpole recognizes the value of contributing to the program and eagerly signs up new members. At a recent local membership meeting, she joined PEOPLE Coordinator Denise Felt in talking up the advantages of contributing to more than 200 campus workers.
“Basically, we talked to them about Janus v. AFSCME Council 31 and we told them what it could mean to them and their benefits, and what it could mean to the contract,” Walpole said. “It’s about contract security. If we lose our union and we lose our contract, we lose everything.”
Walpole said the message seemed to resonate with many of the workers.
“They seemed to understand that there are troubles ahead of us and that we needed to have a voice in order to fight them,” she said. “We told them that big business is taking over and we need to have someone stand up for us.”
Walpole said she was one of the original CSEA members to join the PEOPLE program when it first started in the mid 1980s. “I felt it was important back then, and I’ve been a member ever since,” she said. “I plan on [continuing to contribute after]I retire.”
Walpole said she likens the cost of contributing to PEOPLE to purchasing a fast-food meal. “I always say it’s a trip to McDonald’s to save your benefits,” she said. “I think that’s really reasonable.”
The bottom line? “It’s an important program that we have to fight for our rights,” she said. “For that small investment, you can protect your union rights.”
— Mark M. Kotzin
