Former City Council member Mary Pinkett urged members to fight to defend and strengthen the civil service system.
As the keynote speaker Oct. 30 at the DC 37 Civil Service Committee's celebration of Civil Service Month, Ms. Pinkett called public employees the backbone of the city.

For over a century, civil servants have played a central role in providing the vital government services and infrastructure that made New York City the strongest economic center in the country and the financial capital of the world.

Weakening the system

But Ms. Pinkett expressed her distress over the deterioration of the civil service system during the last dozen years under the Dinkins and Guiliani administrations. Tragically, those administrations weakened the system by failing to schedule exams, dramatically increasing the city's part-time and temporary workforce and keeping tens of thousands of provisional workers on the payroll, Ms. Pinkett said.

"What you need are permanent civil servants," said Ms. Pinkett, a former president of Social Service Employees Union Local 371. The local has a long history at the forefront of the struggle to defend civil service. Its current president, Charles Ensley, chairs the DC 37 Civil Service Committee, whose co-chair is Edward W. Hysyk, a former Local 371 member who is now DC 37 secretary and president of Data Processing Employees Local 2627.

Ms. Pinkett noted that the civil service system and union movement are intertwined. Civil service issues have always been top priorities for municipal unions in negotiations with the city. DC 37 is frequently in court, using lawsuits to compel the city to adhere to civil service rules (see 'Union sues, PAA lists move').

Ms. Pinkett said the civil service system is the "best way" to combat bias. Civil service has provided a pathway to the middle class for tens of thousands of minorities and women, who historically have suffered from workplace discrimination elsewhere.

Ms. Pinkett, an African American, recalled that her father migrated from South Carolina to New York City in search of a better life. He worked as a day laborer but was blacklisted because of his workplace agitation. Eventually, he found a secure job as one of the city's first African American sanitation workers.

"When I came into the system, you were looking at when the next exam would be and you were talking about moving up - not layoffs," Ms. Pinkett said.

Passing her first exam

Ms. Pinkett recalled when she was notified that she had passed her first exam and would become a civil servant.
"I was exuberant," she said. "That was when civil service meant you were to have a secure job with regular raises and benefits. You worked in a horrible little office, but you had your pension."

At the meeting, which the committee organized with the help of Program Director Frances M. Curtis, Mr. Ensley presented a leadership award to Claude Fort, president of Civil Service Technical Guild Local 371. Mr. Ensley praised Local 375 members for their work in designing and overseeing the rebuilding of the No. 1 and No. 9 subway tunnel at Ground Zero, a project that came in ahead of schedule and under budget.

The committee also presented a leadership award to Mark Rosenthal, DC 37 treasurer and president of Motor Vehicle Operators Local 983. Mr. Ensley praised Mr. Rosenthal for convincing the city to use federal dollars to help welfare recipients move into civil service jobs.

—Gregory N. Heires