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Kyle Britton of Oneonta has been waiting a long time to be seated as an Oneonta Chapter delegate. He has been an observer to UUP Delegate Assemblies and was an alternate delegate to the Winter DA in February. So when his day finally came, Britton said he was excited to have the opportunity to vote in union elections.
“This is the type of democracy I’m glad to see,” Britton said of the process to elect three statewide officers and five Executive Board members. “I think it’s good when people openly go to the microphone to nominate” candidates for office.
He said he was pleasantly surprised that ballots were tallied and results announced while the delegates waited. “This is different than what I’m used to in the national election,” Britton said.
And when all was said and done, Britton and the nearly 300 other delegates in attendance re-elected three statewide officers and put five new members on the Executive Board. All terms are for two years and begin June 1.
Incumbent Vice President for Academics Frederick Floss was re-elected to a third term in a contested race against challenger William Simons of Oneonta, 172-117. Floss is a professor of economics and finance at Buffalo State.
John Marino, an associate director of radiology at Stony Brook HSC, was re-elected to a fifth term as vice president for professionals. He ran unopposed.
Rowena Blackman-Stroud, an associate director of nuclear medicine at Brooklyn HSC, was re-elected to an eighth term as union treasurer. She defeated challenger Paul Zarembka of SUNY Buffalo, 188-96.
All but one of the five races for Executive Board were contested.
Running unopposed was Raul Huerta, an academic advisor/counselor at Morrisville, who was elected to represent the technical colleges. Also elected were J. Philippe Abraham of Albany, Peter D.G. Brown of New Paltz, Jamie Dangler of Cortland and Carolyn Kube of Stony Brook HSC.
Dangler, an associate professor of sociology at Cortland, unseated incumbent Lorna Arrington of SUNY Buffalo, 154-112.
Brown, a distinguished service professor of foreign languages at New Paltz, battled it out with Jacqualine Berger of Empire State College in two separate ballots before winning the election, 127-115.
Abraham, a senior academic advisor, won against incumbent Candelario “Kiko” Franco of Old Westbury, 133-104.
Kube, a clinical lab technologist at Stony Brook HSC, defeated incumbent Raymond
Dannenhoffer of Buffalo HSC, 132-88.
Meanwhile, delegates acted on nearly a dozen resolutions and one proposed constitutional amendment during the DA. The issues ranged from support for fair pay, veteran and single-payer health care bills, to solidarity for hotel workers, to a proposal to create a Retiree Chapter.
Delegates took the following actions:
- thanked by acclamation those leaving the Executive Board: Arrington, Dannenhoffer, James Fort of Cobleskill, Franco, and Donald Pisani of Stony Brook HSC.
- referred to the Executive Board a constitutional amendment to create a Retiree Chapter. Judith Wishnia of Stony Brook, chair of the statewide Committee on Active Retired Membership, supported the motion to refer, stating there was not enough time to properly debate the amendment;
- called on UUP to work with lawmakers, affiliates and the media to push for passage of fair pay legislation;
- urged support of an updated GI Bill that would give veterans sufficient funds to attend college at public institutions. “The human cost of this war is being borne by hard-working people and they are the ones who need money for college,” said delegate James Collins of Albany;
- congratulated The Saratoga hotel workers of UNITE Local 471 on their recent organizing win, and commended the workers and management for negotiating in good faith;
- commended the union’s Elections and Credentials Committee for its excellent work in conducting the elections. The resolution also asked the Executive Board to charge the committee with making recommendations to the Fall DA on how best to expedite the election process; and
- reaffirmed their support for the troops serving in Iraq by calling for their immediate and safe withdrawal, and to go on the record opposing any further funding for the war except that needed for the complete withdrawal of troops or for veterans’ needs on their return.
Delegates also adopted six resolutions for consideration during the AFT Convention in July. The resolutions call on AFT to:
- fight to protect and strengthen Title IX, the comprehensive federal law that prohibits sex discrimination against students and employees of educational institutions;
- support United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten in her bid for AFT president;
- support justice for workers at Smithfield Packing in their efforts to organize, and to urge management at the North Carolina plant to stop all forms of abuse, intimidation and violence against workers;
- express outrage at the actions of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute president, provost and Board of Trustees for suspending the college’s Faculty Senate following an election of senate leadership critical of the campus president;
- call on AFT delegates (and the state AFL-CIO) to join hundreds of other unions, federations and labor councils in endorsing HR 676, a federal single payer health care bill; and
- urge AFT to reaffirm its opposition to the war and occupation in Iraq, and to join US Labor Against the War to strengthen the organizational capacity of the labor movement to succeed in this effort.
A similar resolution for the state AFL-CIO convention in August was adopted by delegates.
— Karen L. Mattison