Public Employee Press

Political Action 2012
Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus
Strategy Summit
Spreading our political message

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

Union and community activists from all over the state gathered in Albany for the weekend of Feb. 17 at the 41st annual Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Conference, where they lobbied elected officials and joined in workshops and panel discussions on education reform, affordable housing and proposed changes to the state's Medicaid system.

DC 37 Associate Director Henry Garrido and Local 372 Vice President Glenn Blacks participated in the panel on education reform, where activists called for an end to mayoral control. Blacks criticized the Dept. of Education for limiting parental participation. "Parents have been consistently pushed out of the educational process," he said at the Saturday afternoon panel. "When will this insanity stop?'

More staff at HRA needed

Garrido warned of the DOE's increasing use of consultants and outside contracts - which reached the astronomical total of $4.3 billion in the last budget - while services for children with special needs are being dismantled and students with disabilities go without essential services. "We should be outraged," he said.

Local 1549 Vice President Ralph Palladino moderated a discussion on the budget and closing corporate tax loopholes. Ron Deutsch, executive director of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, explained that New York has the greatest income gap between poor and rich in the nation and pointed out that telecommunications giant Verizon paid only 2.6 percent in taxes.

Palladino pointed out that while there has been a 65 percent increase in use of the food stamp program, there has been no increase in staff. He called for the Human Resources Administration to hire more employees to deal with the rising workload.

The governor's Medicaid Redesign Team was also a topic of serious concern at a health-care panel moderated by Sr. Assistant Director Moira Dolan of DC 37's Research and Negotiations Dept. The governor's plan calls for Medicaid clients to be switched to managed care, which would reduce the quality of service to seniors and threaten union jobs. Members of Local 1549 work as Medicaid Eligibility Specialists and SSEU Local 371 members work as Caseworkers doing home care assessments.

Safety net in jeopardy

"This plan is going to be devastating to our seniors, who will be forced into nursing homes," said SSEU Local 371 President Anthony Wells. "The safety net is being destroyed just for profit."

After the workshops, DC 37 held a reception for the hundreds of members and local leaders who made the trip to Albany for the weekend. Comptroller John C. Liu honored DC 37 Political Action Committee Chair Lenny Allen, the president of OTB Local 2021. "Lenny has been a true friend," said Liu at the reception. "And he's been a true fighter for his members."