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Power in numbers pumps up SRP
local January 28, 2004 One reason secretaries in the Ramapo district joined New York State United Teachers last spring was to stand with colleagues already under the statewide union's umbrella. "We felt there was more power in numbers," said Darlene McIntosh, a secretary for 37 years and vice president of the Ramapo Educational Secretaries Association. "The teachers, custodians and substitutes were all with NYSUT and we'd heard good things." The new local joined that chorus in December when the Rockland County local settled a four-year contract, with annual raises of 3 percent to 4 percent and additional raises targeted at jobs paying below average in Rockland County. Co-presidents Alberta Klein and Michele Zeidman were even more pleased because district officials agreed to phase out a tiered system of health insurance contributions. "Some members will soon enjoy a 10 percent decrease in health insurance contributions," said Klein, a secretary in the administration offices. "That was fantastic." Zeidman, an elementary school secretary for 20 years, has bargained a number of contracts for the more than 50 members. She praised NYSUT for making this year's process "the easiest I'd ever gone through. "All the information we needed and more, our labor relations specialist (Mike Siegel) got for us," she said, noting how technological advances have changed secretarial jobs increasingly. "Our jobs are more complex and our salaries just weren't reflecting that." John Canty, president of the Ramapo Teachers Association, noted, "We're all looking forward to being more connected now that we're all with NYSUT." Greece affiliation The Ramapo association was among the 29 new locals of 2,430 members organized from June 2002 to June 2003 for which NYSUT received an organizing award from its national affiliate, the American Federation of Teachers. The award was presented at a recent AFT State Federation Presidents meeting in Phoenix, Ariz. Since then, NYSUT has continued to organize a number of support staff locals, including the 297-member Association of Greece Central Educational Professionals in Monroe County. "Our members include building-level clerical, teacher aides and teaching assistants, health aides, child care associates who work with disabled students and job training specialists," said Cathy Tumia, local president. "Our members were looking for an affiliate which has a strong reputation for representing both education law and civil service law." NYSUT represents more than 500,000 members - including K-12 teachers, School-Related Professionals, higher education faculty and academic staff, health care professionals and retirees. - Betsy Sandberg
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