Pet lovers need worry no more—there are two AFT+ Member Benefits programs that will help keep pets happy and healthy, and more money in members’ pockets. For as low as $11.95 a month, AFT+ pet insurance can protect members against large, unexpected veterinary expenses. Policies include older pets, accident-only coverage and more.

For more information, call (866) 473-7387.

AFT+ also offers a Pet Assure veterinary care benefit. Members can save 25 percent at participating veterinarians on preventative care, shots, lab work, surgery, X-rays, medications and more.

All pets are covered, including exotics and horses, and there are no exclusions for older pets.

For more details, call (888) 789-7387 and use Code UP2003.

Information on these and other AFT+ programs can be found on the AFT website at www.aft.org/benefits.

Are you planning a beach getaway or a cruise to an exotic location? Looking to plan an all-inclusive trip? Let NYSUT Member Benefits help.

Need a hotel or car rental? We’ve got you covered. Want that special book or magazine for some summer reading? We can help with that, too.

Being a UUP/NYSUT member brings with it many advantages and benefits— including the opportunity to take part in any of our endorsed discount programs.

NYSUT Member Benefits offers a variety of discount programs designed to make your life easier and put a smile on your face. The following is just a sampling of some of the discount programs available to you:

TripMark.travel
—Use this all-inclusive travel program when planning your next trip or use the group travel feature for a family reunion; book online or by using helpful travel agents.

Wyndham Hotels and Vacation Rentals
—Receive savings at nearly 7,000 participating hotels, resort condos, villas, homes and cottages.

Car Rental Discounts
 Take advantage of a variety of discounted car rental rates offered by Alamo, Avis, Budget, Enterprise, Hertz and National.

Motivano SmartSavings Online Discount Marketplace
—Shop for sales and discounts on dining, travel and more.

Working Advantage
—Get discount tickets for online shopping, theme parks, museums and attractions, and other special family events.

Buyer’s Edge, Inc.
Find discounts on a variety of consumer goods, such as vehicles, appliances, audio equipment and luggage.

Six Flags Discounts
—Enjoy discounted admissions to participating Six Flags theme parks.

Powell’s Books
—Locate that rare book along with new and used books, e-books, audio books, DVDs and souvenirs from the nation’s largest unionized bookstore.

AFT Subscription Services—Discover the lowest rates on subscriptions to your favorite magazines, such as Newsweek, Time and Sports Illustrated.

We also endorse a number of quality, competitive insurance plans and benefit programs—such as life insurance, disability insurance, catastrophe major medical insurance, and financial and legal services—designed to assist you throughout the year. Many of these programs are available to or cover spouses/domestic partners of members, dependent children, and dependent parents and grandparents.

NYSUT Member Benefits welcome your feedback on our programs and services. Visit www.memberbenefits.nysut.org for a complete listing of opportunities available to you.

(For information about this program or about contractual endorsement arrangements with providers of endorsed programs, please contact NYSUT Member Benefits at 800-626-8101 or visit www.memberbenefits.nysut.org. Agency fee payers to NYSUT are eligible to participate in NYSUT Member Benefits-endorsed programs.)

Wherever they turn, lawmakers are seeing, hearing UUP’s message

Chanting “Fight! Fight! Fight! Education is a right!” UUPers lent their voices to a student/faculty march that brought together nearly 500 SUNY and CUNY students, faculty, unionists and other education supporters with a common goal: to urge lawmakers to invest in public higher education.

The March 15 rally kicked off the Student/Faculty Higher Education Action Day, sponsored by the SUNY Student Assembly, the CUNY University Senate, the New York Public Interest Research Group, NYSUT, UUP and Professional Staff Congress/CUNY.

Marchers spent the afternoon meeting with legislators to urge them to reject Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to slash funding to SUNY, CUNY and commu-nity colleges. Afterward, they gathered at the Capitol for a joint news conference with speakers from the six organizations involved in the event.

UUP President Phil Smith told the crowd to keep up the good fight.

“Will we stand strong and demand a stop to state cuts?” Smith shouted. “Will we demand that public higher education be a priority in New York? Let’s make it clear to lawmakers that state public higher education cuts must end.”

The student/faculty march came on the heels of an aggressive, multifaceted advocacy campaign designed to rescue SUNY from perhaps the most serious academic and financial threat it?has faced since its inception.

Advocacy efforts included President Smith testifying before the Legislature’s higher education committees, a half dozen UUP-sponsored advocacy days in Albany, and meetings with lawmakers in their district offices.

SUNY GOUGED BY CUTS

In testimony during a legislative budget hearing Feb. 10, Smith set the stage for lawmakers’ visits by urging legislators to reject the proposed $100 million budget cut aimed at SUNY. He noted that SUNY’s state-operated campuses have already lost more than 30 percent of their operating budgets. That percentage doesn’t include the proposed $100 million slash, which would bring SUNY’s overall cut to $685 million over the last two years.

“It is unlikely that any other major university in this nation has lost such a high percentage of its operating resources, particularly in such a short period of time,” Smith testified. “If the governor’s proposal is not rejected, SUNY’s level of state support will be back to the level provided in the mid-1980s, despite the fact that enrollment has grown by more than 40,000 students during that time.”

Smith told legislators that SUNY has lost 1,300 faculty and would need 2,700 more full-time faculty to achieve the same faculty/student ratios that existed in the 1980s.

Smith said SUNY cannot tolerate another reduction in state support.

“From campus to campus, courses are being cancelled, class sizes are growing to levels never before experienced, and students are compelled to compete for required courses,” he said. “The longer students must remain in school, the greater the expense to the state and, importantly, to the students and their families. It makes no sense to force delayed graduation.”

ADVOCACY IN ACTION

Carrying that strong message, UUP advocates converged on the Capitol throughout February and March, pressing lawmakers to vote against additional reductions to SUNY’s operating budget and to reject so-called flexibility legislation.

UUP is arguing that the governor’s proposal to permit SUNY to lease campus property and take part in public/private partnerships with minimal public oversight would hurt SUNY more than help it. Smith told lawmakers that educating the state’s workforce does more economic good than some vague notion of public/private partnerships and joint ventures.

In meetings with lawmakers at their district offices, UUPers from chapters such as Farmingdale, Upstate Medical University (UMU) and Cortland reiterated the union’s message.

Farmingdale activists met with Assemblyman Robert Sweeney (D-Lindenhurst), who agreed to work with the union to avoid cuts to SUNY’s budget. He also agreed with UUP by expressing support for the continuation of the so-called millionaire’s tax.

UMU and Cortland advocates shared the union’s concerns with eight Central New York lawmakers, including Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb (R-Canandaigua).

HOSPITALS HIT HARD

Concerns about the future of SUNY’s three public hospitals in Brooklyn, Stony Brook and Syracuse were also made clear to lawmakers. More than 30 UUPers visited with lawmakers March 1 for UUP’s Hospital and Health Science Center Advocacy Day, urging them to preserve funding for the hospitals.

UUP leaders warned that the proposed budget would decimate SUNY’s teaching hospitals by eliminating the $154 million they receive in state support and huge reductions in Medicaid funding.

“The governor’s budget fails to recognize that these are publicly operated hospitals simply because they are required to serve, not only large populations of underinsured and uninsured patients, but also patients referred by other hospitals who have medical conditions that require very costly treatment,” Smith said. “The governor’s proposals jeopardize the welfare of citizens whose health care depends on the viability of our hospitals.”

“There is no fat left in SUNY,” said UMU Chapter member Paul Stasior during a meeting with Assemblyman David McDonough (R-Merrick). “We’re down to muscle.”

“Cuts to health care just don’t make sense,” Stony Brook HSC Chapter President Kathy Southerton told an aide to Sen. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley). “If these cuts are approved, services will be eliminated and programs will close.”

Stony Brook University Hospital is facing the potential loss of 700 jobs.

Stony Brook University Hospital is facing the potential loss of 700 jobs. UUP also delivered its message directly to the public through a strong, statewide print and TV advertising campaign (see related story, page 6). The ads direct readers and viewers to savesuny.org, UUP’s micro-website where people can learn the facts about cuts to SUNY and electronically fax letters to lawmakers.

— Donald Feldstein

UUP’s ad campaign asks public to tell lawmakers to end state cuts to SUNY

A young man stuffs books and clothing into plastic crates and duffel bags, packing up to head off to college.

But something’s not right. He wears a pained expression, not the eager look most college students sport as they ready to return to campus. Suddenly it becomes obvious: he’s not packing for college—he’s packing his dorm room to leave college.

Unable to get required classes to graduate in four years, the student must stay another year—which he and his parents can’t afford—or drop out. The cause: millions in state budget cuts to SUNY, resulting in canceled courses, crowded classes and fewer professors to teach more students.

“That’s a big problem,” the student says. “My folks, they didn’t count on paying for an extra year of college. And I didn’t count on leaving SUNY without a degree.”

The scene is captured in UUP’s new 30-second television ad, part of the union’s statewide advertising campaign calling on state lawmakers to stop state budget cuts to SUNY and to “think ahead and invest in higher ed.”

BRINGING IT

The campaign, which kicked off in March, also includes a series of print ads, billboards and transit posters challenging severe proposed state cuts to SUNY, and its teaching hospitals and medical schools at Brooklyn’s Downstate Medical Center, Stony Brook University Medical Center, Syracuse’s Upstate Medical University and the University at Buffalo.

And UUP has revived its saveSUNY.org micro-website, where the public can petition legislators to stop state cuts to SUNY and invest in public higher education.

“Real people are impacted when the state cuts SUNY’s budget, and that’s one point we’re trying to make,” said UUP President Phil Smith. “SUNY budget cuts are shortsighted. It is imperative that we increase funding for SUNY to keep the University vital, affordable, and accessible for students, today and in the future.”

AIRING IT

The TV ad, which began running March 2, aired during morning and evening news hours and in prime time on broadcast and cable outlets in Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, New York City, Syracuse, and on Long Island. The spot can be viewed on You Tube (http://bit.ly/hX8DaN), UUP’s website at www.uupinfo.org, and at saveSUNY.org.

The ad ends with the words “Tell state lawmakers: Stop SUNY budget cuts” and to “Think ahead, invest in higher ed.” Viewers are then directed to saveSUNY.org to take action.

Print ads carrying the TV spot’s theme ran in papers in those same markets in March. In mid-February, UUP ran print ads opposing state budget cuts to SUNY in weekly papers statewide. Op-ed articles written by Smith echoed that message.

HELP FOR HOSPITALS

The ad campaign also focuses on state proposals to choke all state funding to SUNY hospitals and medical schools and sharply reduce Medicaid aid. If approved, those cuts will leave hospitals without the means to serve large popula-tions of Medicaid and uninsured patients.

There would be also less money to hire instructors to teach at the medical schools; fewer students would graduate to become the next generation of doctors, nurses and health care professionals.

Print ads pointing out the facts ran in major newspapers in Brooklyn, Syracuse and Buffalo and on Long Island. The ads, with a photo of a surgeon, carried the message that the “elimination of all state funding” puts the hospitals and their medical schools on “the critical list.”

Billboards that said “Don’t let budget cuts flatline Upstate Medical University” went up in Syracuse; billboards in Brooklyn, Stony Brook and Buffalo advertised similar messages tailored to those areas.

Long Island Rail Road passengers saw UUP’s message on transit posters placed in train cars and on train platforms. The ads dealt with proposed state cuts to Stony Brook University Medical Center.

— Michael Lisi

An early February chill greeted nearly 400 unionists who came to rally at the Capitol in Albany, three days after a proposed state budget left them financially out in the cold. They came bearing a strong message designed to heat up the debate over the future of SUNY.

“Think ahead, invest in higher ed,” chanted members of UUP, NYSUT, students and other SUNY supporters at a Feb. 4 rally with a theme that matched the chant.

“We say it is time for the state to think ahead and invest in higher ed. It’s time to invest in SUNY,” UUP President Phil Smith said in his address to the rally to the cheers of those assembled. “It’s time to invest in the future stability of New York and the financial well-being of future generations of New Yorkers.”

Smith’s appeal came as the ink on the governor’s proposed Executive Budget was barely dry, a budget that—if enacted —threatens to send SUNY further into the fiscal abyss. The budget would cut SUNY’s operating budget by $100 million. Coupled with $585 million in previous budget slashes to the University during the past three years, SUNY is facing the loss of no less than one-third of its total operating budget.

“We say these draconian cuts have gone too far,” Smith told the demonstrators. “Can SUNY take any more cuts? We say enough is enough.”  

He warned that the problems created by earlier budget cuts—overcrowded classrooms, course cancellations and delayed graduations—would only grow. Smith emphasized the future of SUNY has an impact on all New Yorkers.

“SUNY affects all of us, not just those of us who teach there or who attend classes,” he said. “The future of SUNY affects the hundreds of thousands of New York families who are counting on a public college or university to educate their children.”

HOSPITALS HIT HARD

Smith said the proposed budget undermines the future of SUNY’s three teaching hospitals in Brooklyn, Stony Brook and Syracuse. The governor’s budget eliminates the entire $154 million state subsidy for the hospitals. It also cuts $3 billion from Medicaid funding statewide, which would severely impact the hospitals.

“What is going to happen to patient care in this state, especially for people who are unemployed, uninsured or underinsured?” Smith asked. “Where will they go for health care? This has got to be turned back.”  

SUPPORT FROM NYSUT, LAWMAKER, STUDENTS

NYSUT —UUP’s statewide affiliate—lent its support not just by having some of its members join the rally, but also by having two NYSUT officers address the gathering.

“These budget cuts are horrendous. They are brutal, and we cannot accept them,” NYSUT Executive Vice President Andy Pallotta said. “We cannot accept further decimating the SUNY system.”  

“We’re angry, and we have every right to be angry,” NYSUT Secretary-Treasurer Lee Cutler said. “We cannot afford to let the people not be first. But that’s clearly what this budget does with its priorities, which is so out of whack with what the people of this state need.”

One state lawmaker whose vote will help determine the final budget outcome also addressed the rally. While acknowledging the state’s fiscal plight, Assemblyman Bob Reilly (D-Colonie) said public higher education must remain a priority.

“What we must do as a state and as a people with our university system is preserve the quality of our education, and make sure that education is accessible to all students,” he said.      

Several students were there to hear UUP’s message and were appreciative the union was watching out for their best interests.

“SUNY must be funded. SUNY, the pride of New York, is at risk,” said UAlbany student Matt Annis, who is a legislative intern for UUP. “For my sake as a student and for every student and alumni, keep our legacy intact.”    

FIGHTING FLEXIBILITY

The bad news from the proposed budget goes beyond sharp spending reductions. It also renews the fight over so-called flexibility, a battle that will be waged for the 11th time.

The budget would give SUNY the power to lease campus property, as well as enter into public/private partnerships, both with limited oversight. Additionally, SUNY would be authorized to contract for goods and services without the approval of the attorney general or comptroller. While UUP thinks loosening the red tape on the purchase of goods is a good idea, the opposite is true for services. The union fears it would lead to rampant outsourcing and the loss of unionized positions.

“This latest flexibility plan like the ones before it, is unacceptable and not in the best interests of SUNY students, faculty, taxpayers and the University itself,” Smith said. “SUNY campuses exist to teach students. We cannot sit back and allow campus assets that serve students to be compromised.”

One encouraging note on the flexibility front is the absence of a provision for differential tuition. It was part of the flexibility proposal last year that failed to gain legislative approval.  

ADVOCACY IN ACTION

UUP didn’t wait for the budget’s introduction on Feb. 1 to begin its advocacy press in Albany. Union activists visited the offices of 23 state lawmakers Jan. 25, telling them that SUNY cannot withstand any more cuts to its operating budget.

“Every campus is hurting,” Glenn McNitt of New Paltz told Assemblyman Mike Spano (D-Yonkers), a member of the Assembly Higher Education Committee.

Immediately after the budget was introduced, UUP posted letters on its website for members to send to their respective hometown lawmakers. The letters called on the Legislature to reject the $100 million budget cut for SUNY, restore the $154 million state hospital subsidy, and to oppose flexibility.        

As The Voice went to press, UUP was gearing up for a statewide multimedia campaign designed to build widespread support for holding the line against further spending cuts to the University.

ARMED WITH THE FACTS

UUP is following the lead of its national affiliate, the AFT, in strengthening its coalition of supporters of public education and public employees. At the national level, friends of working people are helping UUP and other unions push back against the attacks. For instance, a Huffington Post blog by former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich defends public employees, noting that public servants are convenient scapegoats.

“It’s far more convenient to go after people who are doing the public’s work, to call them ‘faceless bureaucrats’ and portray them as hooligans who are making off with your money and crippling federal and state budgets,” Reich writes.          

AFT is offering members and supporters the tools they need to fight back against unfair and inaccurate portrayals of public employees. The federation is posting on the Internet the facts that shoot down the misinformation making the political rounds. For example, the AFT points to research that debunks the myth that public employees earn more than their private counterparts.  

ARMED AND READY

Smith provided UUP members at the Capitol rally with the verbal ammunition to speak up for SUNY and students in the face of massive spending cuts.

“Just contact your state lawmakers. Tell them that SUNY cannot lose any more of its operating funds. Ask them to invest in students and in SUNY. Tell them that investing in SUNY is the best way to ensure a brighter future for the family of New York.”

He closed the rally with a call to action.

“Can we do it?” Smith asked, as the crowd enthusiastically responded, “Yes we can.”

“Then let’s go do it!” Smith urged.

— Donald Feldstein

SUNY campuses already had their hands full coping with $562 million in budget cuts over the past two years. The last thing they needed was an additional reduction, yet that’s just what they got.

In late October, Gov. David Paterson imposed a midyear budget cut of $23.5 million on the University to help meet his budgetary target of $250 million in agency spending reductions in the 2010-11 state budget. This latest reduction brings SUNY’s share of the agency cuts to more than $175 million for the current fiscal year.

“Once again, SUNY is being forced to bear a disproportionate share of the burden, and it’s making a bad situation worse,” said UUP President Phil Smith. “The consequences of these reductions are hitting our campuses hard.”

CAMPUSES FEELING PAIN

Those consequences are taking various forms. A number of campuses are not filling vacant positions or delaying the hiring of replacements. For example, Morrisville is not replacing most of its 37 retiring faculty members. Old Westbury is dealing with a $340,000 midyear budget cut through a combination of a slowdown in hiring for vacant faculty positions and drawing upon some of its reserves.

“We can’t absorb any further reductions without cutting services to students,” Old Westbury Chapter President Kiko Franco said. “We’re maxed out and already understaffed.”

The midyear budget cut has forced the administration at Fredonia to consider eliminating 20 positions instead of the 14 originally targeted.

Geneseo is phasing out three academic programs—computer science, communicative disorders and sciences, and studio art—in the face of a 22 percent drop in state support in the last two years. “This is the most wrenching decision I’ve made in 15 years as president,” Geneseo President Christopher Dahl said.

The UAlbany campus community remains up in arms over the campus administration’s decision to target five programs—the classics, French, Italian, Russian and theater—for likely elimination and the potential loss of 60 full-time positions.

But Albany Chapter President Candace Merbler said the move is having a spillover effect on other programs.

“These deactivated programs are affecting other majors in several other departments whose requirements include language or taking a theater course,” she said.

NYSTI UNDER THE GUN

UUP members at the New York State Theater Institute were already hurting financially when the NYSTI board – consisting largely of Gov. Paterson’s appointees—voted in October to suspend NYSTI’s operations Dec. 31 unless private funding is secured.

UUP President Smith issued a statement saying he was deeply concerned and disappointed by that decision. Smith also said the union “will continue to support NYSTI’s fundraising operations. We remain hopeful that adequate private contributions will keep this valuable resource available to the public.”

As The Voice went to press, UUP, NYSTI and its supporters were working to save the theater institute, whose state funding was cut in half in the 2010-11 state budget.

Donations to NYSTI can be made at www.nysti.org/Support/index.htm.

MEMBERS CALLED TO ACTION

“The bleak outlook for NYSTI and SUNY campuses statewide increases the need for members to get active,” Smith said. He called on members to become active by participating in efforts to garner additional resources for SUNY to stave off a worsening financial crisis, including meetings with state lawmakers in their district offices. Smith again invoked his call to action: “If not now, when? If not you, who?”

In late November, Smith sent off a letter to state lawmakers, relating the financial suffering that SUNY is enduring. He appealed for a stop to any further budget cuts.

“We urge you to protect SUNY’s current operating budget and to find ways to repair the damage that has been done to what was once a vital public university system,” Smith wrote.

— Donald Feldstein

The Legislature is not in session, but that doesn’t mean UUP’s outreach efforts are on hiatus.

UUP President Phil Smith said union activists must continue building coalitions with other labor and community groups to advance the union’s legislative goals.

“Now more than ever, we have to reach out to labor and community groups and the faculty senates to educate them about the harm that’s been done to SUNY from budget cuts,” he told Outreach Committee members during a joint retreat with chapter presidents.

How can chapters go about building such coalitions? Cortland Chapter President Jamie Dangler said her chapter has enhanced its influence with lawmakers by building a coalition with local labor councils. Buffalo State Chapter President Rick Stempniak said that attending legislative events for state lawmakers in his area has helped the union personally deliver its advocacy messages.

“The face time you can get with your lawmakers at these events is unbelievable,” Stempniak said.

Electing lawmakers who support UUP’s legislative priorities is also on the political action radar screen. Smith encouraged members and chapter leaders to participate in phone banks to help union-endorsed candidates win in November.

“It is critical that these candidates know UUP helped put them in office,” Smith said.

Phone banks are usually conducted at the regional offices of NYSUT, UUP’s statewide affiliate, but Smith suggested a novel idea for chapters whose campuses are not near a NYSUT office. He suggested such chapters hold cell phone parties. Chapter members could get together and use their cell phones to call fellow unionists.

UUP is also flexing its political muscle through its involvement in the SUNY Rock the Vote voter registration campaign.

Working with the SUNY Student Association and NYPIRG chapters on SUNY campuses, the goal of the campaign is to register as many students as possible to vote in the November election.

Yet another issue that UUP advocates expect to be dealing with is the impact of health care reform on SUNY’s three health science centers. HSC Concerns Committee Co-chair Ray Dannenhoffer of Buffalo HSC said there is concern about how reform might affect the hospital’s teaching mission by having teaching faculty devote less time to teaching and research.

“We must embrace and promote our mission, and as a union we must support the physicians and HSC staff that maintain this mission,” he said.

With the number of items on the plate of UUP’s activists, the union is looking for more members to participate in advocacy activities.

Chapter leaders want to recruit members to take part in regional advocacy training sessions to help the union reach its legislative goals.

Members looking to volunteer should contact their chapter office.

— Donald Feldstein

UUP is mounting an aggressive advocacy drive, prompted by indications that this will almost certainly be a difficult budget year.

Gov. David Paterson left that impression in his State of the State address Jan. 6, when he said, “This is a winter of reckoning for New York.” He blamed what he called “cultures of addiction to spending” for leading the state into its current fiscal crisis.

As The Voice went to press, the exact scope of the challenge facing UUP was not clear, since the governor had not yet introduced his Executive Budget. Given the suggestion from the governor that all areas of state spending faced the budget knife, significant reductions in state support for SUNY appeared more than likely.

“We need to be and will be very visible in our budget fight this year,” UUP President Phillip Smith pledged. “More than ever, we need to educate lawmakers and the public about how valuable SUNY is to the future of this state and its economy to ensure the University is not undercut further by more budget cuts.”

The union’s advocacy drive in Albany was scheduled to begin Jan. 26, with members meeting state lawmakers to push for additional funding for the University. A series of advocacy days is scheduled through May. Smith urged members to join the effort.

“We can’t afford to have people sitting on the sidelines,” he said. “We need to have more people in the trenches fighting for the future of the University.”

UUP is also taking the battle for SUNY directly to the public in the form of a television and newspaper advertising campaign that begins this month.

Meanwhile, more UUP chapters are providing momentum for continued coalition building, aligning themselves with various groups and organizations to safeguard and broaden state support for SUNY.

The Purchase Chapter got into coalition building in a big way, co-hosting a campus forum with the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG). Titled, “Taking Back Our Education: A Student & Legislator Hearing,” the Dec. 10 forum zeroed in on the need for increased state funding for public higher education.

“SUNY has already taken an enormous hit from previous budget cuts,” UUP Purchase Chapter President John Delate told the forum, referring to the $410 million in state funding sliced in the last two years. “We understand these are challenging economic times, but SUNY has already taken more than its fair share of reductions. It’s more important to fund this economic engine rather than deplete it further.”

A crowd of about 75, mostly students, heard Delate make his case, along with three state lawmakers from Westchester County who attended. Students and faculty got the opportunity to address their concerns and questions to Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer (D-Mamaroneck) and Assembly members Amy Paulin (D-Scarsdale) and George Latimer (D-Rye). All three lawmakers pledged to work to ensure that public higher education receives proper funding. Delate said the groundwork for UUP’s cooperative relationship with NYPIRG grew from both organizations having worked together on a joint rally with CUNY faculty Oct. 27 in Manhattan.

UUP’s Cortland Chapter kept up its coalition building and advocacy activity. A four-member delegation from the chapter met with Sen. James Seward (R-Milford) in his district office to express their concerns about state support for SUNY.

Chapter President Jamie Dangler found that Seward empathizes with the union about the crisis facing the University.

“He stated SUNY isn’t the problem. It should be the solution,” Dangler said. He is concerned that SUNY will not have funds for basics like utilities in the coming year.”

Additionally, Dangler said Seward sought specifics about how the budget cuts are affecting the Cortland campus.

Dangler and Chapter Secretary Elizabeth Owens also reached out to build a coalition with the Midstate Central Labor Council at their December meeting. They handed out fact sheets about SUNY’s budget cuts along with a flier detailing Cortland’s economic impact on Central New York. The UUPers also broached the idea of having council members work with UUP to organize presentations to local legislators and community groups.

— Donald Feldstein

The need for universal health care in America hit home recently for Cortland Chapter member Henry Steck.

Steck’s wife, Janet, was hospitalized, underwent testing and was released the next day. Everything turned out fine except for the whopping $10,000 hospital bill, which the hospital initially said Steck had to pay because coverage didn’t fall under Medicare or health insurance.

It turned out to be a hospital paperwork glitch, but Steck spent more than two hours on the phone with the insurance company to straighten it out.

The incident prompted Steck to pen a resolution supporting meaningful health care reform; the Cortland Chapter submitted it during the 2009 Fall Delegate Assembly, where it was approved unanimously by delegates.

“America is the only major industrialized country that doesn’t have a government-supported universal health care system,” Steck said. “Health care should be a right, not a transaction in a marketplace.”

“This is a moral responsibility and a fiscal responsibility,” said Georges Fouron, vice chair of the union’s Human and Civil Rights Committee. “The citizens need this kind of protection. How we can tolerate this in a democracy like the U.S. is unconscionable.”

Joining in

Other UUPers have also joined the fight for health care reform and universal health care, strongly supporting President Barack Obama’s plan to provide health care stability and security for all Americans.

At the Fall DA, delegates overwhelmingly adopted a resolution that asserted equal access to quality health care “as a human right.” Offered by the Human and Civil Rights and LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning) committees, it likens the right to health care to the rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” guaranteed in the Declaration of Independence.

“If you define what human rights are, they ensure the safety and the advancement of all people,” said Oswego Chapter President Steven Abraham, chair of the Human and Civil Rights Committee. “Human rights are the right to be alive, to exist as a functioning member of society. Without health care, clearly you are denied those rights.”

Even though most UUP members have health benefits and coverage through the union’s negotiated contract with the state, the issue is of prime concern to members, many of whom have family members and friends currently underinsured or uninsured.

“As UUPers, we are wage earners, we don’t have great wealth,” Steck said. “If you get a catastrophic illness, you can run out of resources and in a matter of a few months, you can lose everything. We can’t accept this.”

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is connected with health care,” said Fouron. “I personally think the government has the responsibility to provide adequate health care.”

Obama’s health care vision is, at last, beginning to take shape legislatively. In November, the U.S. House of Representatives passed its comprehensive health reform legislation; the Senate is working on its version of the bill.

Both bills include a government-run public insurance option. The bills are designed to establish health insurance consumer protections, bar insurance industry practices like refusing coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions and stem rising medical costs nationwide.

The AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) are doing their part to push health care reform.

Through its “Health Care for America Now” program, the AFL-CIO wants heath care reform that controls costs, provides comprehensive high-quality coverage for everyone, and calls on the government to ensure “fairness and efficiency” in the insurance system.

The AFT is also calling for a public insurance option that provides coverage for all

Americans. Under its plan, employer-provided health care benefits would not be taxed, and it would set appropriate staffing levels for nurses, which would help reduce patient re-admissions and health complications, save money and improve quality.

— Michael Lisi

The need for universal health care in America hit home recently for Cortland Chapter member Henry Steck.

Steck’s wife, Janet, was hospitalized, underwent testing and was released the next day. Everything turned out fine except for the whopping $10,000 hospital bill, which the hospital initially said Steck had to pay because coverage didn’t fall under Medicare or health insurance.

It turned out to be a hospital paperwork glitch, but Steck spent more than two hours on the phone with the insurance company to straighten it out.

The incident prompted Steck to pen a resolution supporting meaningful health care reform; the Cortland Chapter submitted it during the 2009 Fall Delegate Assembly, where it was approved unanimously by delegates.

“America is the only major industrialized country that doesn’t have a government-supported universal health care system,” Steck said. “Health care should be a right, not a transaction in a marketplace.”

“This is a moral responsibility and a fiscal responsibility,” said Georges Fouron, vice chair of the union’s Human and Civil Rights Committee. “The citizens need this kind of protection. How we can tolerate this in a democracy like the U.S. is unconscionable.”

Joining in

Other UUPers have also joined the fight for health care reform and universal health care, strongly supporting President Barack Obama’s plan to provide health care stability and security for all Americans.

At the Fall DA, delegates overwhelmingly adopted a resolution that asserted equal access to quality health care “as a human right.” Offered by the Human and Civil Rights and LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning) committees, it likens the right to health care to the rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” guaranteed in the Declaration of Independence.

“If you define what human rights are, they ensure the safety and the advancement of all people,” said Oswego Chapter President Steven Abraham, chair of the Human and Civil Rights Committee. “Human rights are the right to be alive, to exist as a functioning member of society. Without health care, clearly you are denied those rights.”

Even though most UUP members have health benefits and coverage through the union’s negotiated contract with the state, the issue is of prime concern to members, many of whom have family members and friends currently underinsured or uninsured.

“As UUPers, we are wage earners, we don’t have great wealth,” Steck said. “If you get a catastrophic illness, you can run out of resources and in a matter of a few months, you can lose everything. We can’t accept this.”

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is connected with health care,” said Fouron. “I personally think the government has the responsibility to provide adequate health care.”

Obama’s health care vision is, at last, beginning to take shape legislatively. In November, the U.S. House of Representatives passed its comprehensive health reform legislation; the Senate is working on its version of the bill.

Both bills include a government-run public insurance option. The bills are designed to establish health insurance consumer protections, bar insurance industry practices like refusing coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions and stem rising medical costs nationwide.

The AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) are doing their part to push health care reform.

Through its “Health Care for America Now” program, the AFL-CIO wants heath care reform that controls costs, provides comprehensive high-quality coverage for everyone, and calls on the government to ensure “fairness and efficiency” in the insurance system.

The AFT is also calling for a public insurance option that provides coverage for all

Americans. Under its plan, employer-provided health care benefits would not be taxed, and it would set appropriate staffing levels for nurses, which would help reduce patient re-admissions and health complications, save money and improve quality.

— Michael Lisi