Debbie Bell to profs’ union

DC 37 bid farewell to a stalwart trade unionist on March 1 as Debbie Bell became the executive director of the Professional Staff Congress, which represents some 17,000 professors at CUNY. A City Planner in Local 375, Ms. Bell worked for DC 37 for two decades. She rose to direct the Research and Negotiations Dept., where she played a central role in winning the King Day holiday and launching the first citywide longevity payments, and the Public Policy Dept. Balancing work and family herself, she became a strong advocate for health care and child care and helped the union build alliances with advocacy communities.

Democrats praise McEntee in Washington, D.C., and New York

AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee came in for high honors three times recently.

President McEntee, the head of DC 37’s 1.3 million member parent union, received awards from a nationwide organization, Democrats 2000, and the New York State Democratic Committee. He was also named one of America’s 50 most powerful people in politics in George Magazine, founded by the late John F. Kennedy Jr.

At their annual dinner on March 28 in Washington, D.C., Democrats 2000 cited McEntee as “one of the great progressive leaders of our time because of his commitment to economic justice and civil rights.” As chair of the AFL-CIO’s “Labor 2000” effort, McEntee is credited with spearheading a massive get-out-the-vote effort that helped Democratic candidate Al Gore win the majority of the popular vote last year.

The State Democratic Committee held its 2001 Labor Leadership Luncheon in honor of Mr. McEntee March 23 in New York City. An emergency kept him from attending, and DC 37 Administrator Lee Saunders accepted the award on his behalf. The event was hosted by city, state and national union leaders, including New York City Central Labor Council President Brian McLaughlin, New York State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes, and DC 37’s own Local 372 President Veronica Montgomery-Costa and Deputy Administrator Eliot Seide.

Three from DC 37 are cited as “women of courage and vision”

Three women from three DC 37 locals received awards March 21 as City Hall celebrated “Women of Courage and Vision” during Women’s History Month.
Honored for “outstanding job performances” were:

• Assistant Chemical Engineer Frances Leung of Local 375. To protect the public, she handles complex investigations of chemical factories and tracks down sources of deadly pollutants for the Dept. of Environmental Protection.

• Supervisor of Watershed Inspectors Amy Flavin of Local 1322. Ms. Flavin helps eliminate threats to the city’s water supply by responding to reports of sewage discharges, dumping and construction runoff near city reservoirs.

• Fire Dept. Paramedic Eileen F. Sullivan of Local 2507, who serves the East Harlem community. A 20-year veteran in EMS, Ms. Sullivan was cited for a “selfless act of bravery” — pulling a victim out of the Hudson River with her partner Roberta Post.
  

The awards were presented by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, Deputy Mayor Rudy Washington and Amalia Betanzos, chair of the Commission on the Status of Women.

Local 1322 President John Townsend attended the ceremony and said all three “are great examples of the kind of workers DC 37 represents. The members of Local 1322 are particularly proud of Amy Flavin.”

Jewish Labor Committee honors Lee Saunders

DC 37 Administrator Lee Saunders received the Jewish Labor Committee’s Human Rights Award March 14 at the group’s annual dinner. Presenting the award, Retail Workers President Stuart Appelbaum said Mr. Saunders and the JLC “share a vision of society in which working people are treated with justice and dignity.” He said Saunders “is not intimidated by anybody as he fights for the rights of working people.”

Mr. Saunders said, “The Jewish heritage of standing up to injustice, so nobly embodied by the work of the JLC, inspires us all.” Labor and the Jewish community, he said, “have worked together to eradicate prejudice by marching together for civil rights legislation.”

Other awards at the event went to Edward Sullivan, president of the AFL-CIO’s Building Trades Dept., and Lewis Rudin, chair of the Association for a Better New York. Speakers included New York State Comptroller H. Carl McCall, JLC President Morton Bahr, who heads the Communications Workers, and AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney, who called the honorees “champions of human rights.”

Members receive Sloan Awards for their “extraordinary commitment to the public”

Local 2627 member Wendy Dorf and Local 375 member Michael Greenman received Sloan Awards March 14 from the Fund for the City of New York for “extraordinary service and commitment to the public over many years.”

Fund President Dr. Mary McCormick said that each year, “This city reveals an amazing number of civil servants of the highest caliber.”

The annual Sloan Public Service Awards, which come with a $7,500 cash prize, recognize “the many accomplishments of municipal employees whose day-to-day dedication and effectiveness often goes unnoticed.”

Mr. Greenman is a geologist and chief of the Subsurface Section of the Dept. of Design and Construction. The Fund called him a “subterranean wizard, whose work in his 31-year career has saved the city and builders an untold amount of money and, more important, kept New York City’s public structures on sure footing.”

Ms. Dorf is geographic information systems coordinator for the Dept. of Environmental Protection. She was honored for a joint project with Richard Steiner of the Dept. of City Planning and Alan Leidner of the Dept. of Information Technology, a former member of Locals 375 and 2627.

Together, they “overcame resistance to implement a grand vision: creation of the colossal NYCMAP — an accurate and probably the most complicated and detailed urban map ever created to improve ?coordination of city services, save money and save lives.”

The NYCMAP shows, for example, every subway entrance, curb line and fire hydrant.