“Don’t you think we deserve respect?” UUP President Phil Smith asked nearly 1,500 unionists as he addressed a June labor rally at the Capitol in Albany. “Our members at SUNY teach a lot of valuable lessons. Among them is respect. But how can we educate our students about respect if we ourselves are not respected?”

Members from UUP, the Public Employees Federation (PEF), NYSUT and other unions attended the rally organized by PEF.

The rally—one of a dozen conducted across the state the same day—came in response to the threatened layoffs of state workers if state employee unions didn’t reach an agreement on terms and conditions of new labor contracts with the state. PEF later reached agreement on terms of a tentative five-year contract.

— Donald Feldstein