NEWSLETTERKIT2012-2013

WINTER-SPRING EDITION

Central Region 5

A Publication in the CSEA Region 5 Leadership Education Series

To increase the creation of union newsletters in our Region, I have askedCommunications Specialist Mark Kotzin to revive this Newsletter Kit.

It is my hope that, even if you just use the “cut and paste” method, you will use theinformation and graphic resources within to put together even a quick “one-pager”that you can get out to your members on a semi-regular basis.

What we’ve learned over the years is that our members value more frequentcommunications, and they’re not as concerned about the style it’s presented in.Even if you throw something together that’s quick to distribute to the membership,it’s better than not putting anything out at all.

Remember, people tend to fill in a lack of information with rumors and stories.

So please, union officers, use this Newsletter Kit to help increase your regularcommunications with your membership. Our union will be stronger, and ourmembers more informed, as the result.

Of course, if you wish, Mark is always available through the Region Office toprovide additional training and resources to assist you in putting together yourunion newsletter. Call him at (315) 433-0050.

This Newsletter Kit will also be available online in pdf format for downloading at:www.csealocal1000.org/r5

I hope this proves useful to you, and please send both me and Mark a copy of yournewsletter!

In Solidarity,

Colleen Wheaton, PresidentCSEA Central Region 5

About this kit…

A Message from CSEA Region 5 President Colleen Wheaton Fall 2012

Beware the perils of privatization!Six years ago, CSEA foughthard to keep DelawareCounty from privatizingtheir nursing home, theCountryside Care Center.

Despite our building astrong showing ofcommunity support for

keeping the facility publicly owned, submitting morethan 2,500 petition signatures to the County Board ofSupervisors, the Board still voted to sell the facility to aprivate operator.

Prior to their vote, CSEA asked the question: what wouldhappen if the private operator could not make a profit?Could they simply walk away from the operation,leaving taxpayers holding the bag?

At the time, we were attacked by those who supportedthe sale, accused of using “scare tactics” just to try andsave union members’ jobs.

Unfortunately, we didn’t know how right we were. I amsad to report that our question has come back to hauntDelaware County full force.

Recently, Countryside Care Center’s operators decidedto abandon their ownership of the facility, after runningup a huge amount of citations and deficiencies at theformer county home. Faced with the threat of losingfederal funding, the operators decided to simply walkaway from their responsibilities and their promises theymade to the community.

Worse, they abandoned the residents under their care,left them with substandard care, and left them and theirfamilies scrambling to find alternative placements. Mostwere relocated outside the county, some as far away asBuffalo. By all accounts they were scared and uncertainabout their future, and I’m sure the stress had a negativeimpact on their health. It’s worth noting that manyworkers in the community also lost their livelihoods.

The closure ends a sad chapter in Delaware Countyhistory. Prior to privatizing, they took seriously theirresponsibility to care for their citizens in need, havingbeen in the business of caring for their elderly since1829.

It gives us no pleasure to look back and say we wereright. It does, however, make us fight privatization thatmuch harder when we recognize that nearly everycounty in our Region that still owns a nursing home islooking at privatization in one form or another.

So we MUST share the story of what happened inDelaware County as a cautionary tale to those hopingthat privatization will be the cure for the lack of fullreimbursement from the state and federal levels.

We’ve already heard from one county examiningprivatization that said “we won’t be another DelawareCounty.” Well, I can assure you the elected leaders inDelaware County never expected to be where they arenow. In fact, I can quote the Chair of the Board ofSupervisors, who in 2004 said “There are certain thingsthe private sector does better than government, but wewouldn’t do anything that affects the quality of care forour elderly residents.” He also said “It is ourresponsibility to look after our elderly and the terms ofany contract with any buyer will stipulate to that.”

Well, we can see now how well that worked for them.Unfortunately, promises made were not kept. Where isDelaware County’s responsibility to its elderly now?

Everyone needs to look long and hard at the unfortunateexample that Delaware County has set, and what we asa society value paying for. If security and quality carefor our senior citizens in need are part of that, I cautionour elected leaders to beware the perils of privatization.

In Solidarity,

President’s Column

Treasurer’s Report

Meeting Notice!

Coming Soon…

Grievance Update

Steward Listing

Cut and Paste Headlines

Safety & Health

Workshop Report

Local Happenings

Unit Happenings

Our Union Leadership

At Our Last Meeting…Conference Report

Union Training UpdateVolunteers Needed!

What Do YOU Want fromYOUR Union?We say it a lot, but we’re not sure how manymembers actually get that this is THEIR union. Wereally are a member-run union, and our success orfailure hinges upon the involvement andparticipation of the people who belong to our union.

So it’s really up to you what YOU get from YOURunion. Are you someone who likes getting involvedand helping make changes that will positively impactour workplaces? Or are you someone who doesn’twant to get involved, and you’re okay with the statusquo? Maybe you’re happy with how your unionfunctions, or maybe you think it’s time for a change.

Either way, as your union officers, we can’t fix whatwe don’t know is broken. Put another way, we can’tdo this all by ourselves. Some people have thestrange notion that we get paid to represent them.Would it surprise you to learn that your unionofficers are all volunteers and don’t get anycompensation, except for the occasionalreimbursement for travel or other union expenses?

Our union will always be stronger if we haveparticipation. This could be members stepping up toserve on committees, run for union office, or simplyregistering their opinions as to what we should bedoing as a union. We may be many things –dedicated, persistent, committed to fighting for ourmembers, but there’s one thing we’re not – psychic.

If you truly want our union to be the best it can be onbehalf of all our members, then we need you to let usknow how you feel about the direction your union isheaded. Give us an idea of how we’re doing asofficers. We’re not looking for accolades and awardshere, we just want to know what you think we’redoing right, and what we can do better. And if, bychance, you might want to volunteer to join us inhelping make our union better, we’d be more thanhappy to have you aboard!

Our Union ContractProtection...  Security...    A Voice in ourWorkplace...These are some of the benefits of our union contract. Atthe most basic level, it’s a legal agreement between man-agement and the union that locks in our benefits, guaran-tees our wages, and gives us protections that have theforce of law behind them. It’s also a living document,being re-negotiated each time a former contract expires,and at times being subject to legal reinterpretations.

There is not much that’s more important to our every daywork lives than our contract. It sets our terms and condi-tions of employment, and lets us know what is generallyexpected of management and workers. It helps definehow we can be treated, and instills a general sense offairness that doesn’t exist in non-union workplaces. Be-cause this is such an important document, it is of thegreatest importance that our members: 1) know what thecontract says and speak out when their contractual rightsare being violated and 2) get as involved as possible in thenegotiations process and support our union negotiatingteam.

So how does our contract come about? It’s a collaborativeeffort between many parties. Our elected CSEA leader-ship, in cooperation with our professional union staffnegotiators, negotiate the contract. At every point in theprocess, we welcome and encourage memberinvolvement/participation. Members are appointed by ourUnit President to serve on the Negotiating Team and sit atthe table with our chief negotiator and decide what getsnegotiated on our side. We also survey our membershipto find out your negotiating priorities, and try to keepopen good lanes of communication during the process tomake sure the needs of our membership are met. When itcomes to a contract offer, only our members have the finalsay, voting to accept or reject any deal reached.

Negotiations is a two-way process, however, and we muststick together, and sometimes fight together, especially indifficult economic times, to win the contract we deserve.We work with our Region Staff professionals to developstrategic campaigns, to mobilize, and to build pressure onmanagement to gain a fair contract. We also work withinour CSEA Region structure to reach out to other Localsand Units for assistance in our fight, so we don’t have togo it alone.

The resulting contract is a binding document that offersus protection, security, and a voice in our workplace.Once it is in place, our CSEA Labor Relations Specialistworks with our elected leadership, appropriate unionstaff, and management to enforce the terms of our con-tract, and make sure that our rights are preserved andprotected.

Our CSEA Region 5 Professional Staff Services

LaborRelations

Communications

PoliticalAction

Safety& Health

LegalServices

Whether it's negotiating a new contract, enforcing the terms andconditions of your current contract, fighting unfair disciplinaryactions or violations of your contract rights, CSEA officers turn toCSEA's professional Labor Relations Specialists (LRSs). Yourassigned LRS works one-on-one with your leaders to help mentor,guide and assist them in all their Labor Relations needs. He or shealso acts as your chief negotiator at the bargaining table and yourpoint person to accessing all the rest of CSEA's available benefitsand services.

When CSEA needs to get out our messages to the media, the public,our elected officials, or even our own members, assistance isavailable from Communications Specialist Mark Kotzin.Whether it's putting together Letters to the Editor, flyers,informational pickets, brochures, Info Days, newsletters, contractcampaigns, press releases, or articles for CSEA's statewidenewspaper The WorkForce, Mark is a seasoned staff professionalwho can help with all our union communications needs.

By participating in the political process, we strengthen our voice atwork. That's why CSEA has a Political Action Department. In ourRegion, all political activities are conducted with the assistance ofLegislative and Political Coordinator Rick Noreault. Rick canhelp CSEA leaders and activists get involved in the political processin many ways, whether it’s endorsing politicians who will listen toour issues, running voter registration drives, or getting politicalsupport to save jobs or services, or to fight against contracting-outour jobs.

If you have a safety and health issue at your workplace, or want helpdeciphering safety laws and regulations designed to protect you,then you needn't look any further than Region Occupational Safetyand Health Specialist Joshua Kemp. Josh is available to assistSafety & Health Committees and Local/Unit officers and activists,conducting work site walk-throughs to assess existing or potentialhazards, filing safety complaints, or conducting training forworkers on safety issues.

When CSEA members need legal representation for work-relatedmatters, CSEA has a network of Region Attorneys who work withour leaders and staff to make sure that members' legal rights areprotected. Subject to approval of CSEA's Legal AssistanceProgram, CSEA provides, at no cost to the member, an attorney forarbitrations and other legal actions. Also on tap are the union's ownLegal Department staff Attorneys, who have regularly scheduledvisits to the Region to meet with staff and members over legal issues.

To contact your CSEA Professional Staff representatives,call our CSEA Central Region Office, 24 hours a day, 7 daysa week, toll-free at (800) 559-7975

Organizing

If you belong to or know of a group of non-unionized employeeswho want to empower yourselves through joining New York'sleading union, then the CSEA Organizing Department staff arethe folks to talk to. They will assist you and your co-workers injoining CSEA and are available to meet confidentially with workersinterested in finding out more about the many benefits and servicesthat accompany CSEA membership.

· For info about what’s going onwith CSEA across Central NewYork…

· For messages from our RegionPresident…

· For a list of my union staff andhow to contact them…

· For more information about myunion membership benefits…

· To find out how you can get moreinvolved in your union…

· To connect to CSEA throughFacebook & Twitter…

· For info about our union trainingsand workshops…

· To see what’s coming up on ourCSEA calendar…

· To read what CSEA is saying tothe media…

· And to learn more usefulinformation! Just surf on over...

Visit our CSEARegion 5 WebPage!

Why don’t I seemore of CSEA in myworkplace?Union members often askthis question, mistakenlythinking that becausethey rarely see a CSEAprofessional staffrepresentative in theirworkplace, they are notproperly represented bythe union. It’s time tocorrect thatmisconception.

Look around at your co-workers. Look for yournearest union steward or elected union officer. Thenlook in the mirror. The faces you see? They are ALLCSEA.

Sometimes our members who are not activelyinvolved in the union are unaware that CSEA is amember-run union, and that our power to effectchange in the workplace comes from our ability toorganize our members around an issue, so webecome a more powerful force.

Yes, our union’s professional staff plays a vital rolein the process, but under our union’s structure,they are not the front-line people who handlemost of our daily issues and workplace concerns.That’s what our network of elected union officers,trained stewards and grievance representativesare there for. They are our co-workers, volunteeringto help run our union, and backing us up.

Our professional union staff, many located out of ourRegion Office or our two Satellite Offices, workclosely with our workplace representatives,providing advice, mentoring and access to the manyother staff professionals and services availablethrough our membership in New York’s leadingunion.

So the next time you hear a co-worker ask “why don’twe ever see anyone from CSEA around here?” pleaseask them to look in the mirror, and remind them thatthey just did.

www.csealocal1000.org/r5Also online at:

facebook.com/csearegion5

twitter.com/csea_region5

CSEA Clip Art

Your Union Needs YOU!

Colleen Wheaton, President

WIN

TER

Earth Day – April 22

A rborDa y

note

ProfessionalSecretaries'

Week!

Administrative

Professionals

Week!April 22-28

Colleen Wheaton, President

Developed and published by Communications Specialist Mark Kotzinwith assistance from the CSEA Communications Department