The Voice

It seems like so much has happened since my first day as president of UUP in February 2008, a day that I found myself in a face-to-face meeting with then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer before a press conference for a proposed endowment for higher education.

A year later, Spitzer is long gone, Lt. Gov. David Paterson is now Gov. David Paterson, and a public higher ed endowment is still a pipe dream, jarred by the harsh reality of stunning, stinging state budget cuts to SUNY that rocked the University’s very foundation.

This is the war we’ve been waging for months, and it’s a war that has galvanized this union and has given us numerous opportunities to show our mettle. And we all have.

Three statewide union officers and five Executive Board members were re-elected by union delegates to the 2009 Spring Delegate Assembly in Albany. Three first-time board members were also elected to two-year terms during the two-day policymaking convention.

UUP President Phillip Smith defeated challenger Weston Kennison of Geneseo, 173-128.

“Phil Smith is a leader with creative ideas and quiet diplomacy,” said Jamie Dangler of Cortland in her nominating speech. “A vote for Phil is a vote for competency, integrity, transparency and democracy.”

Take elections for three statewide officers and eight Executive Board seats, combine more than two dozen committee meetings, add passage of a dozen resolutions and special orders of business, and sprinkle in journalism awards. That’s the basic recipe for UUP’s 2009 Spring Delegate Assembly.

More than 300 delegates gathered in Albany for the Spring DA April 24-25, three weeks after the state Legislature approved a new state budget in the midst of a continuing economic downturn. UUP President Phillip Smith seized the opportunity to give delegates an in-depth analysis of what the budget means to the union and SUNY.

Budget victories

Delegates to the 2009 Spring Delegate Assembly in Albany unanimously adopted an annual operating budget of $8.3 million that reflects the union’s priorities for 2009-2010: service to the membership, outreach activities and recruitment of new activists.

“Our delegates understand that the budget presented for their consideration has gone through a rigorous review by the Audit and Finance committees, and that the union obtained maximum input from members when preparing it,” said UUP Treasurer Rowena Blackman-Stroud. “This budget reflects extensive discussions and debate at the statewide and chapter levels.”

In her report to delegates, Blackman-Stroud noted that UUP negotiated a total of nearly $1.2 million in direct support from NYSUT, up by nearly $100,000 from the previous year.

The union will receive a one-time lump sum payment of $125,000 from the NYSUT  Solidarity Fund to support UUP’s outreach advertising campaign. The total amount allocated for annual outreach activities is $625,000.

Eight UUP chapters and the union’s Committee on Active Retired Membership earned high marks for their newsletters and Web sites in the ninth annual Journalism Contest sponsored by the union’s Communications Department.

“I commend our active and retiree members who volunteer as writers and designers of union newsletters and Web sites,” UUP President Phillip Smith said. “They should all be proud of the work they do to spread the message that UUP is the union that makes SUNY work.”

Awards were handed out during the 2009 Spring DA as follows:

Cobleskill Unity—Honorable Mention, General Excellence, Editor: Joanna Sanchez.

Members of UUP’s Veterans Affairs Committee learned how the law protects the employment rights of returning veterans.

Barry Morgan, director of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service in Albany, delivered a presentation during the DA on the rules employers must follow under the Uniformed Service Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA).

“The law is written with a slant toward the veteran,” Morgan said.

Echoing the words of Robert F. Kennedy, NYSUT leaders urged delegates at the 37th annual Representative Assembly (RA) to “speak up and speak out” on important union issues at a time when organized labor is under attack from many quarters.

The RA also had a strong social justice focus that meshed with its “Speak Up, Speak Out” theme, taken from remarks Kennedy made in June 1961 to the Joint Defense Appeal of the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League of the B’nai B’rith.

Anyone who has been involved in UUP during the last four decades has most likely crossed paths with Thomas Matthews of Geneseo—and walked away with a smile. His soft-spoken manner and uncompromising principles define this longtime activist who has helped to shape the union’s mission from the beginning.

Among Matthews’ key roles in UUP: He has served as the union’s statewide treasurer and vice president for professionals, and he is UUP’s only two-time chief negotiator, leading the way on the oft- contentious 1994-1999 and 1999-2003 contracts.

It’s this tireless devotion to higher education unionism that earned Matthews this year’s NYSUT Higher Education Member of the Year Award. He received the award during the 37th annual NYSUT Representative Assembly April 2-4 in Buffalo.

Two newsletters produced by UUP members earned a total of five awards for outstanding writing and design.

The Active Retiree and the Farmingdale Unifier were feted at the annual NYSUT journalism awards luncheon at the 2009 RA in Buffalo. The competition is sponsored by New York Teacher.

The Active Retiree won Awards of Merit for general excellence and best editorial, and an honorable mention for best news story.

“This well-designed, well-written and well-edited newsletter sends a clear message: Retirees as activists and difference-makers,” is how the judges described the newsletter, which is published for the more than 3,300 retiree members of UUP.

The editorial “Health care should be a priority in this election,” by Judith Wishnia of SUNY Stony Brook, also earned high marks from the judges. “This editorial is not just well-written and well-organized, it does an excellent job of backing up its point with a number of factual references.”

UUP made a strong showing at the American Federation of Teachers’ (AFT) annual conference on higher education issues.

Close to two dozen UUPers joined higher ed academics and professionals from across America March 5-8 in Miami, participating in the AFT conference “Generating Power: Mobilizing the Union to Revitalize Higher Education.” UUPers attended daily workshops and plenary sessions on topics from building faculty and staff diversity to campus safety and organizational structures for contingent faculty.

Several workshops focused on issues important to contingent faculty, many of whom are worried about their jobs as campuses in New York and other states restrict spending to make up for revenue cuts.