News From our Members

Don’t stumble in Race to the Top

By RICHARD C. IANNUZZI
First published in print: Monday, July 19, 2010

In the coming days, when U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan unveils the next round of Race to the Top finalists, the question of how to best measure teacher effectiveness will again make headlines.

From the ranks of those loosely defined as education experts, a new breed of reformers will no doubt be critical of those states not chosen, contending they didn’t demand enough from teachers and teachers unions. At the same time, hard-core teacher activists will wail that states picked as Round 2 finalists went too far, undermining what they believe is most important in education. The use and misuse of standardized tests will be rallying cries for both.

I spent 34 years as an elementary school teacher. After brushing aside the rhetoric, the issue for me is simple:

Whenever I marked a paper or graded an exam, I wanted to know how my students performed. I felt pride when I saw progress and angst when I did not. I wanted to know I made a difference — and couldn’t hide the disappointment from myself when I didn’t. Like all teachers, I wanted my students to grow and to learn. I wanted to be given credit when my students made progress, and I had to accept the reality I wasn’t without responsibility when they did not.

I taught in a school district with little tax base and significant poverty. Sometimes the district was overwhelmed by the consequences of deprivation and transience while neighboring districts flourished, benefiting from more than adequate household wealth and stability.

We knew that comparing test results unfairly labeled our students and wrongly criticized our efforts. We were angry that test scores were used to blame teachers for society’s failure to meet its obligation to those most in need.

Similarly, our colleagues in wealthier districts were angry because they saw the reliance on test scores as bogus and stifling.

For better or worse — mostly worse — the Obama Administration has seized upon standardized tests as central to evaluating educational progress and measuring teacher effectiveness.

How teachers are evaluated — through the use of test scores and other measures — will undoubtedly weigh heavily in Round 2 of the Race to the Top’s scoring.

New York State United Teachers and the state Education Departmently agreed on legislation, now signed into law, that changes how teachers are evaluated. Standardized test results will account for 20 percent of a teacher’s and principal’s evaluation, later moving to 25 percent.

When standardized tests are not given, locally designed tests will be used. Other measures — some already in use, such as classroom observation, and some new ones, such as a student’s body of work — will make up the rest of the evaluation.

A number of teachers in my union worry that we went too far; many of our critics say we didn’t go far enough.

Ultimately, I fear that all that will matter is how New York’s percentages compare with those states that made the Race to the Top cut and those that didn’t — and that’s unfortunate.

Far too many will ignore the full impact of all that is gained by New York’s entire plan to improve teacher effectiveness, and how it supports teacher and student growth.

Lost in the posturing will be the renewed emphasis on teacher preparation, mentoring and ongoing professional development.

Overlooked will be the collaborative support for teachers as they meet the challenges they face every day, and the recognition for those who excel, including providing highly effective teachers the opportunity to share their knowledge and skills with others. The goal of having practitioners control their own profession and define excellence will be lost in rhetorical frenzy.

Research points to teacher effectiveness as the most critical factor in improving student performance. Teachers overwhelmingly take pride in that, and most accept the converse — that ineffective teaching hampers student growth. Measuring that growth must play a part in understanding what makes an effective teacher, but it must be measured in a reasonable and appropriate way that takes into account all that goes into the learning environment and the art of teaching.

When the finalists are announced, we will find out if Race to the Top is a comprehensive strategy for improving education for our country’s students or just a race about numbers and dollars.

Richard C. Iannuzzi, who taught fourth-grade in Central Islip for most of his 34 years in the classroom, is president of the 600,000-member New York State United Teachers.

CSEA Honors Parole, Probation Workers

ALBANY, NY (07/16/2010)– CSEA President Danny Donohue today recognized more than 2,000 union members across the state who work in probation services by declaring July 18 – 24, 2010 as “Parole, Probation and Community Supervision Week.”

“On behalf of the 300,000 CSEA members across New York state, I am pleased to recognize our members who are probation professionals by declaring this week as Parole, Probation and Community Supervision Week,’” Donohue said. “This week is in honor of a work force that deserves much respect.”

Probation professionals are a vital part of every New York state county work force and have an important duel role in the public safety field. Not only do probation professional work with the justice system to protect the public from crime, violence and abuse, but these workers also deal with the social aspect of prevention, helping rehabilitate law offenders to rejoin society in a positive way.

Unfortunately, as with all public safety work, these professionals often put their own well being at risk in effort to keep people and their communities safe. CSEA realizes the high level of commitment and the special dedication these workers have to the public they serve.

“I urge one and all to join with me and thank the men and women who work in probation,” Donohue said. “They make our communities safer for the betterment of everyone.”

CSEA is New York state’s leading union, representing employees of the state and its counties, towns, villages, school districts, library systems, authorities and public benefit corporations. Together with a growing population of private sector members and retirees, CSEA is the largest affiliate of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which is one of the largest affiliates of the AFL-CIO.

Major Unions to Confront Banks on Foreclosure Policies

LABORPRESS

WEDNESDAY, JULY 14 — Union leaders including Local 100’s John Samuelsen, the UFT’s Michael Mulgrew, Local 1199’s George Gresham, DC 37’s Oliver Gray, and Brooklyn’s Rev. Dr. Herbert Daughtry joined with City Comptroller John Liu today and with Jon Kest, Director of New York Communities for Change, to announce what amounts to a fightback against financial institutions who have profited from the subprime crisis, and now refuse to address its devastating fallout.

Foreclosures in New York City are up 16% in the first quarter of 2010 over the same period in 2009 and rising, according to the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. Big banks have been repeatedly told by the Obama Administration that they have to make good faith efforts to modify loans of qualified borrowers whose homes are “underwater” because of the subprime mortgage crisis. But when the rubber meets the road – and borrowers with unaffordable mortgages actually try to get better terms, they often face agonizing run-arounds by nameless customer service agents working for the same banks.

As the Comptroller put it, “Unresponsive staff, misinformation, and repeated requests for paperwork – the red tape and bureaucracy New Yorkers often cite as they struggle to save their homes – are symptoms of a system that lacks incentives for banks to take action and find solutions.”

Officials from New York’s top unions have been hearing from members that banks are unresponsive and have decided to do something about it: put the power of their pension holdings, and the clout of City Comptroller John Liu, behind tough letters to the Bank of America, Citibank, HSBC Bank, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo. The letters went out July 14. They demand that the major banks explain to the unions the time frames in which they respond to loan modification requests, the progress they are making in writing down the principal of loans which are higher than the value of the property, and whether they are working with non-profits on plans to purchase homes so that current owners can remain there.

At stake if the banks do not reply are the huge bond and equity holdings in these corporations which the unions hold as trustees of both the New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS) and the Teachers Retirement System (TRS). For example, as of the end of the last fiscal year, NYCERS held shares in JPMorgan Chase valued at $147 million and $136 million in JPMorgan Chase & Subsidiaries bonds. Positions in Bank of America were valued at $137 million (shares) and $67 million (in bonds). Holdings in the other banks named in the union letters are also in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The letters are signed by Samuelsen (TWU Local 100), Mulgrew (UFT), Roberts (DC 37), Gresham (1199), and Comptroller Liu.

The press conference at the Comptroller’s office also featured testimony from two union members, including Jamie Fidler, a teacher who lives in Sunset Park and is struggling to pay her mortgage, and Joy Allen, a member of Local 1199 whose house is also “underwater.” They described the runaround they are getting from the banks in spite of holding jobs and making every effort to meet their obligations.

Union leaders made it clear that their patience is wearing thin. TWU Local 100’s John Samuelsen said that banks “must restructure and modify your mortgage loans, following established federal guidelines, so that the workers you took advantage of have an opportunity to keep their houses and stop the foreclosures. Because you profited so handsomely, it’s now time to pay back. Local 100, with a seat on the New York City Employees Retirement System, considers this a criterion for our future investment decisions in the stocks of these banks and associated financial institutions.”

Said the UFT’s Mulgrew: “Banks must realize that keeping people in their homes is not only good for working class families and communities, it’s good for the entire city and a key part of or economic recovery.”

George Gresham of 1199 said that “whenever a home is foreclosed it sends a ripple effect throughout neighborhoods. Not only do these families have trouble obtaining new loans, but the value of neighboring properties drop and communities are devastated. Clearly, current efforts to modify loans are not working.”

Major Victories in Tobacco Control Take Effect This Week

Comprehensive Tobacco Control Policies Crucial to Saving Lives, Protecting Children and Reducing the Negative Toll of Tobacco Use on Communities

Washington, D.C. – July 1, 2010 – Across the country this week, several major smoke-free laws and cigarette tax increases take effect that will save lives, protect families and improve the health of communities across the country. These strong public health measures will help to reduce overall tobacco use and incidence rates of tobacco-related cancers.

On July 1, cigarette taxes will increase in New York, New Mexico, Utah, South Carolina and Hawaii – bringing the average state cigarette tax to $1.45 per pack nationally. Smoke-free laws will go into effect in Kansas on July 1 and Wisconsin on July 5 that will make all workplaces in those states, including bars and restaurants, 100 percent smoke-free.

“Lawmakers across the country are taking a stand against the scourge of tobacco use. Comprehensive state and local smoke-free laws, higher tobacco excise taxes and fully funded tobacco prevention and cessation programs are critical to reducing the negative toll of tobacco use on communities,” said John R. Seffrin, PhD, chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), the advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society. “Only by tackling tobacco use through a comprehensive approach can we effectively overcome the country’s tobacco epidemic and reach our goal of a smoke-free nation.”

The Society and ACS CAN work in partnership with state policymakers across the country to ensure that tobacco use is addressed through proven methods including 1) raising the price of tobacco products, 2) implementing comprehensive smoke free policies and 3) fully funding and sustaining evidenced-based, statewide tobacco prevention and cessation programs.

Since 2002, 46 states, the District of Columbia and several U.S. territories have raised their cigarette tax in more than 100 separate instances, including 14 states and the District of Columbia in 2009 and six states in 2010.

As of July 1 the new cigarette taxes in New York, New Mexico, Utah, South Carolina and Hawaii will be: $4.35, $1.66, $1.70, $0.57 and $3.00 respectively. New York will be the new highest tax in the nation and also the first with a tobacco tax over $4. South Carolina’s historic increase came after a decade-long battle. Until now, the state had the lowest tobacco tax in the nation and had not passed an increase since 1977. Missouri now has the lowest tax in the nation at 17 cents.

Research has consistently shown that every 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes reduces youth smoking by 7 percent and overall cigarette consumption by about 4 percent.

In New York, the new revenue will help fund health programs in the state – including money for tobacco cessation programs and for the state cancer research center in Buffalo. A portion of the revenue from the tax increase in New Mexico will be directed to Medicaid and numerous other health services. In Utah, the revenue will support the state’s general fund.

Kansas and Wisconsin will be the 21st and 22nd states to implement comprehensive smoke-free legislation that requires 100 percent smoke-free non-hospitality workplaces, bars and restaurants. They will be the 34th and 35th states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, to require some combination of 100 percent smoke-free workplaces and/or restaurants and/or bars. Additionally, more than 3,000 municipalities have local laws in effect that restrict where smoking is permitted. Combined, this represents more than three-fourths of the U.S. population.

Secondhand smoke is a major health hazard, proven to cause lung cancer, heart disease and emphysema. With 4,000 chemicals and more than 60 carcinogens – including arsenic and polonium – secondhand smoke causes cancer, heart, and lung disease and kills nearly 50,000 nonsmoking Americans each year, including 3,000 deaths from lung cancer.

Smoke-free laws save lives. Strong smoke-free laws that include all workplaces, including restaurants and bars, are the only effective way to protect all workers and the public from the health hazards of secondhand smoke. Smoke-free workplaces and public places also make it easier for smokers to quit and discourage kids from picking up this deadly habit.

States with comprehensive tobacco control programs experience faster declines in cigarette sales, smoking prevalence, and lung cancer incidence and mortality than states that do not invest in these programs. The CDC recommends states spend $3.7 billion or more on tobacco control programs. Only nine states are funding at even half of the CDC’s recommend spending levels and North Dakota is the only state to approve funding control programs at the CDC prevention spending target.

“Despite major progress in passing strong tobacco control measures at the state and local levels, only 40 percent of the population is covered by comprehensive smoke-free laws and only one state currently meets the CDC’s recommended spending levels on tobacco control,” said Christopher W. Hansen, president of ACS CAN. “There is much more to be done and we encourage advocates and lawmakers to continue to work together to strengthen their state tobacco control policies.”

The use of tobacco products remains the nation’s number one cause of preventable death, killing more than 440,000 Americans and costing $96 billion in direct health care costs each year.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Nicole Bender
(202) 661-5773
Nicole.Bender@cancer.org

Steven Weiss
(202) 661-5711
Steve.Weiss@cancer.org

NYSUT presses to save teacher center funding

NYSUT Media Relations – July 7, 2010

ALBANY, N.Y. July 7, 2010 — New York State United Teachers today said it would continue to relentlessly press state legislators to fund the state’s Teacher Centers, saying that shutting down the state’s most effective program for training teachers “makes no sense.”

NYSUT President Richard C. Iannuzzi said $35 million in funding for Teacher Centers, which provide professional development and training to teachers across the state, is not included in the state spending plan on which the Legislature agreed.

The state’s 130 Teacher Centers are being counted on by the State Education Department and local school districts to support educators in using new standards, curricula and assessments; strengthen teaching in the lowest-performing schools; train teachers to more effectively use data, and to help implement the new teacher principal and evaluation system.

“It makes no sense to pass a sweeping and innovative law to improve teacher effectiveness and, just weeks later, eliminate all the funding for a highly acclaimed program that provides professional training to teachers,” Iannuzzi said.

NYSUT Executive Vice President Andrew Pallotta said NYSUT is pressing the Legislature to find the funding to keep Teacher Centers open. “We will be doing everything in our power to ensure the Teacher Center network remains viable,” he said.

NYSUT Vice President Maria Neira said Teacher Centers, over the last 25 years, have built strong private-public partnerships with Intel, Microsoft, Verizon and other major corporations and foundations.

“These private-public partnerships help to improve teaching and raise student achievement, and also lower taxpayers’ burden by bringing tens of millions of dollars in private investment into school districts,” Neira said. “Corporate contributions from Intel, Verizon, Microsoft and others to Teacher Centers more than double the state’s $35 million investment in teacher training and are the kind of dollar-for-dollar partnerships the state should be leveraging, not discouraging with senseless cuts.”

Neira noted that, in the business world, the most successful corporations recognize the importance of investing in the professional growth of their workers, including keeping them up to speed with the latest developments in technology and other fields.

“Even in the midst of a prolonged recession, New York must continue to invest in the professional growth of its teachers, especially as it embarks on major education reform initiatives. To effectively shut off the professional training offered by Teacher Centers at this critical juncture is short-sighted and counterproductive,” Neira said.

NYSUT, the state’s largest union, represents more than 600,000 teachers, school-related professionals, academic and professional faculty in higher education, professionals in education and health care and retirees. NYSUT is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association and the AFL-CIO.

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Editors, reporters: For a list of Teacher Centers and their leaders in your communities, call 518-213-6000.

Statement of PEF President Kenneth Brynien on Comptroller DiNapoli’s commitment to the state’s pension fund

Albany -The New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) applauds and supports state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s stand on protecting the state’s pension fund.

Comptroller DiNapoli has proven himself a tenacious defender of the fund and we have full faith and confidence in his ability to continue to protect the fund.

New York State’s pension fund is one of the few pension funds in the country that has remained fully funded during the economic downturn. The comptroller’s commitment to protect the fund from political tampering is one of the reasons the fund hasn’t slipped, the way many other public pension funds have.

PEF is the state’s second-largest state-employee union, representing 58,000 professional, scientific and
technical employees.

PEF Call for Prove of DOT

PEF calls for investigation into DOT consultant spending and conflicts of interest

Albany -The New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) calls on the state Inspector General and the legislature to investigate the Department of Transportation (DOT) as it continues to waste millions of taxpayer
dollars hiring private consultants to do work state employees can do for much less.

“It is not uncommon for DOT regional directors, chief engineers, and other high ranking DOT management to find employment with engineering firms that receive significant consulting contracts from DOT,” said PEF President Kenneth Brynien. “This may explain why DOT has made no progress in reducing its reliance on consultant engineers.

“We are asking the Inspector General and legislature to investigate the post-state employment practices of upper DOT management to determine whether they comply with the current ethics laws and whether or not current ethics laws provide adequate protection against conflict of interests in DOT’s consultant contracting process,” Brynien said.

PEF has discovered the DOT consultants failed to account for more than $250 million of their expenditures in state fiscal year 2008-09. The department increased consultant spending by $9 million last year and $79 million since 2004.

“The DOT habitually contracts out for engineering-related expenditures, including project design, construction inspection and bridge inspection knowing it costs significantly more. The department is required by law to make its consultants disclose specific costs associated with these contracts, yet more than half of DOT consultant engineering expenditures in the last fiscal year were simply not accounted for. It’s no wonder there is a budget gap. Imagine trying to operate a business without knowing what your employees spend your money on,” said Brynien.

“Time and again, DOT has failed to reign in its wasteful spending practices. If we are ever going to get New York’s fiscal house in order, we must begin with cutting inefficient spending right in our own backyard,” said State Senator and Deputy Majority Leader Jeffrey D. Klein, Chair of the Senate Task Force on Government
Efficiency.

“For the last decade, I have been a strong advocate of replacing consultants with state employees when it can be shown to save the state money. I am particularly disappointed with the Department of Transportation’s lack of progress and failure to reduce their use of consultants,” said State Senator Neil D. Breslin.

The state is currently in one of the worse fiscal crises since the Great Depression, yet overall spending on consultants increased by more than $36.6 million last fiscal year totaling $2.925 billion.

“It is unconscionable that DOT has failed to take any meaningful steps to reduce its reliance on costly consultants even though consultants cost up to 150 percent more than state employees who do the same work,” Brynien said.
“DOT could save up to $84.3 million annually by replacing most of its engineering consultants with state employees.

“Last weekend the engineering firm hired for the $42 million Exit 6 bridge replacement project in Latham added four more consultants to cover work scheduled to be done by two state employees. The governor’s new policy eliminating most state employee overtime now means the state will spend more money on higher priced consultants to do the work state employees could have done for less,” Brynien added.

Based on what PEF has uncovered, it is clear the state could save hundreds of millions of dollars by performing cost-benefit analysis prior to contracting out for consultant services. PEF is encouraging the passage of the cost-benefit bill (A9934/S7011) introduced by Assembly Member Susan John and Senator Jeffrey Klein. The bill requires agencies to perform a cost-benefit analysis prior to contracting out for consultant services in excess of $500,000 annually.

PEF’s examination of DOT consultant engineering contracts shows that DOT wastes million in every region of the state. Below are just a few examples of expenditures for bridge inspections or design services in the last fiscal year 2008-09:

Capital District – Civil Engineering bridge inspection work billed at $112 per hour for a total of $1.2 million. We estimate that DOT engineers could have done the work for $536,000 for a savings of almost $700,000. (Contract #D030511 for Bi-annual and interim bridge inspection in Capital District).

Mohawk Valley – Civil Engineering bridge inspection work billed at $86.02 per hour for a total of $799,000. We estimate that DOT engineers could have done the work for $463,000 for a savings over $300,000. (Contract #D030512 for Bi-annual and interim bridge inspection in the Mohawk Valley region).

Central NY – Civil Engineering for design services work billed at $97.62 per hour for a total of $304,000. We estimate that DOT engineers could have done the work for $155,000 for a savings of nearly $150,000. (Contract #D025401 design work related to rehab of three bridges and I-81 in central NY).

Genesee Valley – Civil Engineering bridge inspection work billed at $103 per hour for a total of $513,000. We estimate that DOT engineers could have done the work for $246,000 for a savings of $266,000. (Contract #D030514 for Bridge Inventory and Biannual Bridge Inspection in the Genesee Valley).

Western NY – Civil Engineering for design services work billed at $95.03 per hour for a total of $302,000. We estimate that DOT engineers could have done the work for $158,000 for a savings of nearly $143,000. (Contract #D025601 for design work including rehab of bridge ramp for NY RT 33).

Central Southern Tier – Civil Engineering bridge inspection work billed at $90.77 per hour for a total of almost $300,000. We estimate that DOT engineers could have done the work for $166,000 for a savings of $133,000. (Contract #D030516 for Biannual Bridge Inspections in the Central Southern Tier).

North Country – Civil Engineering design services billed at $98.06 per hour for a total of $230,000. We estimate that DOT engineers could have done the work for $117,000 for a savings of $113,000. (Contract #D015454 for design work in North Country).

Hudson Valley – Civil Engineering bridge inspection work billed at $97.16 per hour for a total of $1.33 million. We estimate that DOT engineers could have done the work for $724,000 for a savings of $614,000. (Contract #D030517 for Bi-annual and interim bridge inspection in the Hudson Valley).

Southern Tier – Civil Engineering bridge inspection work billed at $92.17 per hour for a total of $1.7 million. We estimate that DOT engineers could have done the work for $870,000 for a savings of $824,000. (Contract #D030518 for Bridge Inspections in Southern Tier).

Long Island – Civil Engineering bridge inspection work billed at $130.50 per hour for a total of $613,000. We estimate that DOT engineers could have done the work for $234,000 for a savings of $378,000. (Contract #D015612 for Bridge Inspections in Long Island region).

New York City – Civil Engineering bridge inspection work billed at $100 per hour for a total of $3.4 million. We estimate that DOT engineers could have done the work for $1.7 million for a savings of $1.7 million. (Contract #D015608 & D015610 for Bi-annual and interim bridge inspection in the Bronx and Queens).

Using just this small sample, the state could have had an additional $5.3 million to use on road and bridge maintenance and repair if DOT engineers were used rather than costly consultants.

PEF is the state’s second-largest state-employee union, representing 58,000 professional, scientific and technical employees.

Read the Fisch letter: Fisch

Read the Consultant Disclosure: Consultant

New York State Nurses Association condemns Governor Paterson’s budget extension bill

$384 million in healthcare cuts will leave New Yorkers vulnerable

Today the New York State Nurses Association condemned Governor Paterson’s latest budget extension bill that calls for $384 million in cuts to the state’s healthcare system.

“The Governor is employing a desperate tactic in order to force the hand of state government. Unfortunately, this game of political chicken calls for unsustainable cuts to health care that will endanger the lives of New York’s citizens,” said Tina Gerardi, MS, RN, CAE, Nurses Association CEO.

The Governor’s proposal also reduces reimbursements to hospitals for charity care by $72 million and includes nearly $13 million in cuts to public health programs.

“No one is questioning the need to keep our government running, but the budget cannot be balanced on the backs of New York’s most vulnerable – the ill and indigent. If we don’t stand up for this population, who will?” said Gerardi.

Labor’s tough customers: The city’s new breed of old-school union leaders are ready to rumble

By Philip Dine

Listen to some new labor leaders on the New York City scene, and you might think we’re back in the union movement’s take-no-prisoners days of the 1930s. We’re not, of course, but something intriguing is going on – and it has national implications.

Five months into his presidency of Transit Workers Local 100, John Samuelsen is ratcheting up the heat to prevent the MTA from trimming several thousand jobs and altering work rules. He contrasts the plight of transit workers sent into “filthy, disgusting conditions” with MTA head Jay Walder’s “raking in the dough.”

No surprise, perhaps, for a burly, selfdescribed son of “two working stiffs from Brooklyn” whose insurgent TWU campaign alleged that his predecessor – who led the 2005 transit strike that brought New York to a near standstill – was insufficiently militant.

At the United Federation of Teachers, strapping former construction worker Michael Mulgrew has an outsized personality and booming voice to match. As New York officials are learning – including “numb nuts” Joel Klein (a.k.a. the schools chancellor) – Mulgrew doesn’t mince words.

Even before assuming office 10 months ago, this Staten Island son of a waitress became the huge local’s public face by leading protests against budget cuts at City Council meetings, in Albany and in the streets.

Meanwhile, former Queens and Brooklyn hospital cop Greg Floyd, once the youngest hospital police captain in New York history, recently took the reins of Teamsters Local 237. He’s running a far more energized ship than the leader he replaced, unsurprising since Floyd is three decades younger.

Each in his 40s, these men reflect a generational shift in New York’s labor movement, arguably the country’s most powerful. Moreover, they head major locals interwoven with city life. The UFT’s 145,000 members make it a pivotal player in education and politics. Local 100, key to New Yorkers getting to work every day, is TWU’s biggest affiliate with 38,000 members. Local 237′s dispersed membership gives it clout in housing, health and public safety agencies, and its 24,000 members constitute the largest local in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

We are seeing the new face of the American labor movement emerge. It is tough, it can be uncompromising, and – this is critical – it is weighted toward the public sector. As U.S. manufacturing jobs continue to vanish and the service sector (think Wal-Mart) remains difficult to organize, government has emerged as labor’s growth industry.

This was unimaginable a half-century ago, when private industry was heavily organized and few government workers were in unions. But last year for the first time, the expanding public sector, though still five times smaller than the private sector, leaped past it to become – by 500,000 members – the majority within the labor movement.

In a time of economic hardship, this is setting the stage for classic conflicts. With governments at all levels facing budgetary shortfalls, the salaries, pensions, job security and other benefits of public employment are coming under intense scrutiny. Critics on the right sense an opportunity to go after two of their prime targets – government and unions – in one fell swoop.

It’s no surprise that their attacks are finding sympathetic audiences among some private-sector taxpayers, since so many working and middle-class people face desperate conditions, with high unemployment and foreclosure rates and economic anxiety all around. Moreover, they’re the ones paying the freight for the public-sector employees.

Government workers perform critical – often dangerous – duties, and whatever benefits they enjoy result from open negotiations between labor and management. But that doesn’t change the fact that they’re now under siege – or that the tensions are likely to rise before they recede.

From California to Illinois to New York, teachers are excoriated for compensation said to take resources from students, transit workers are targeted for allegedly abusing sick day policies, while county employees hear that their benefits risk bankrupting local governments. The host of a national TV business show told me on air a few days ago that unless government workers sacrificed their “lavish” pensions, children would have “worse health” because of program cuts.

The likes of Samuelsen, Mulgrew and Floyd could react to the turning tide by going with the flow. Instead, they’re growing more assertive, unafraid to use their bully pulpit or their political muscle to make their point.

In reality, they have little choice, because their tough stances stem from more than personality. They fit the times.

With their newfound status, they are the last best hope, for the foreseeable future, of a struggling labor movement. If a new Walter Reuther or Jimmy Hoffa is to arise, he may well spring from the fertile environment of public-sector unionism, where workers are less susceptible to being fired or intimidated by employers, and where their jobs can’t readily be exported. By contrast, some private-sector unions once known for militancy have found themselves forced into concessions as companies and even entire industries – consider auto and the UAW – face collapse.

To truly understand what’s fueling the no-nonsense leadership that’s emerging, we must go back a few years.

Even before the financial crisis and unemployment surge, the country was undergoing a shift in wealth with wages lagging rising productivity. Corporate profits assumed the highest share of the Gross Domestic Product in many decades, and wages/salaries the lowest. The virtual deindustrialization of America, with good-paying factory jobs – disproportionately union – going overseas has exacerbated all these trends.

So labor leaders increasingly feel pressure to stand firm and defend their members. Indeed, what we are witnessing in the emerging New York leadership is also reflected on the national level, where Rich Trumka, a combative former coal miner, has replaced the professorial John Sweeney as AFL-CIO president.

But just when working people sorely need a forceful advocate, many unions have found themselves hard-pressed to effectively fill that traditional role. Not only has labor’s strength declined because of the reality of ebbing membership, employer aggressiveness and job flight, the widespread perception of unions as irrelevant relics of a bygone era has further reduced their influence.

It’s impossible to overstate how much the notion that labor is a dinosaur grates on union leaders or rank-and-file members. For everything they are experiencing tells them just the opposite: that rarely has a strong labor movement been more necessary than right now.

It’s no accident that average people find their living standards, pensions and job security threatened at the very time labor’s been weakened, any more than it was a coincidence that the greatest expansion of the middle class – from the late 1940s to the mid-1970s – marked the apex of labor’s strength.

Why, at the very time corporate influence has grown more powerful, more concentrated and more distant, would working people best cope for themselves as individuals without a collective voice?

One other factor also has helped wipe the smiles from labor leaders.

After doing more to elect this President and this Congress than ever before, folks in the labor movement have quietly stewed for months about the results or, more precisely, lack thereof. Where, they wonder, are the promised labor law reforms, renegotiated trade deals or jobs? Why has their top legislative priority, the Employee Free Choice Act – which would help reverse falling union numbers – languished on the back burner?

And so a new generation of labor leaders – tough, energetic and frustrated with the status quo – has come to the fore, and isn’t going away anytime soon. Particularly in a place like New York City, where a powerful labor movement goes hand-in-glove with a prominent public sector, residents can expect to get used to the countenance and tone of a Samuelsen, a Mulgrew and a Floyd.

Like them or not, you’ll know they’re around, because you’ll hear and see them fighting.

Dine, author of “State of the Unions: How Labor Can Strengthen the Middle Class, Improve Our Economy, and Regain Political Influence,” is a Washington-based journalist and a frequent speaker on labor issues. He is from New York City.

Community Healthcare Network President/CEO Catherine M. Abate Named to NYC Commission on HIV/AIDS

Commission made up of individuals with diverse backgrounds who have more than a decade of experience in field

New York, NY- Community Healthcare Network (CHN) President/CEO Catherine M. Abate has been named to the New York City Commission on HIV/AIDS, a body of key policy advisors on HIV/AIDS issues.

“I’m honored to have been asked to be part of this important commission,” said Catherine M. Abate, CHN president/CEO. “Community Healthcare Network has been a leader in the fight to end the spread of HIV and I look forward to sharing what we’ve learned with the Commission.”

Formed in 2003, the Commission includes individuals from diverse backgrounds, including executive directors of AIDS service organizations, HIV prevention researchers, and persons who are living with HIV/AIDS. Each member has more than a decade of experience in the field of HIV/AIDS.

Abate has served as President/CEO of CHN since 1999, her latest endeavor in a career that spans several decades of public service. A former New York State Senator in Manhattan and Commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction, Abate began her professional life as an attorney at the Legal Aid Society in New York City. She is a frequent lecturer on health care and serves on a number of boards including New York-Presbyterian Community Health Plan, Inc and its HIV SNP, Medicaid Matters New York – Steering Committee, Community Health Care Association of New York State, and Alliance for Women’s Health.

CHN is one of New York City’s premier community providers for medical and social services for those who are HIV-positive, as well as those who are at risk of contracting HIV. CHN has been involved in planning, developing, and providing HIV/AIDS services since HIV first appeared in New York City and led the way as the first agency in the U.S. to incorporate HIV services, such as counseling and testing, into family planning services.