The winners of the 2010 Nina Mitchell Award for Distinguished Service have much in common: they are caring, active UUPers who believe in positive change and have dedicated their lives to working to protect the rights of their union sisters and brothers.

Vicki Janik of Farmingdale and Larry Wittner of Albany are the recipients of the Mitchell Award, the union’s highest honor.

“Vicki and Larry embody the ideals and principals of the labor movement,” said UUP President Phil Smith. “Their activism over the years has been an inspiration to all and an excellent example for younger members. Congratulations to these two dedicated UUP members.”

Vicki Janik’s UUP service began in 1988, when she became a member of Farmingdale’s executive board, a post she still holds. She served as chapter treasurer in the mid-1990s and as Farmingdale’s vice president for academics and labor/management committee chair from 1993-1999.

Janik rejoined the joint committee in 2006; she also serves as grievance chair for academics and is on the campus’ Labor/Management Part-Time Committee.

At the statewide level, she serves as co-chair of the Women’s Rights and Concerns Committee. While co-chair, she presented a Delegate Assembly resolution that resulted in UUP/NYSUT funding for UUP’s Gender Equity Study. Janik has also served on the Issues of Diversity Task Force, the Grievance Committee, the Wal-Mart Task Force and the Technology Issues Committee.

“Vicki Janik epitomizes the meaning of the Nina Mitchell award,” wrote Farmingdale Chapter President Yolanda Pauze. “She is dedicated, energetic and a committed union activist.”

Janik has shown care and compassion for the “most vulnerable” members over the years, wrote statewide Executive Board member Bob Reganse of Farmingdale, who recalled how Janik refused to back down when the college president became angry over a chapter newsletter article. In response, he sent a threatening letter to the chapter’s executive board and distributed the letter across the campus.

Some board members were intimidated by the letter, but Janik was one of the strongest voices calling for the chapter to stand up and fight. As a result, the president was forced to write an apology to the board and pass it around campus.

“I can think of no other person more worthy of the Nina Mitchell award than Vicki Janik,” wrote Reganse. “She has demonstrated again and again her caring, her strength and her intelligence in the service of our members.”

Larry Wittner’s UUP involvement began in 1979, when he joined the Albany Chapter executive board. He was chapter vice president for academics from 1983-1987, and has served on the statewide Solidarity Committee since 1988. Wittner represented the chapter in its campaign to unionize UAlbany’s dining hall workers.

He has been a delegate since 1979, and he was the first chair of UUP’s Solidarity Committee—a panel he still sits on as a member.

“Larry’s work with the union, both on the chapter and state level, has been instrumental in the growth and leadership role that UUP has taken in the broader labor movement,” wrote Albany Chapter President Candy Merbler.

Wittner’s involvement in social justice causes dates back to the 1960s, when he was a civil rights worker and picked fruit as a migratory farm worker. In the 1980s, he spoke out against apartheid in South Africa, and was arrested at a peaceful sit-in at Albany’s Federal Building in 1985, as part of the nationwide Free South Africa demonstrations. He raised $5,000 for the Congress of South African Trade Unions.

He initiated and distributed “Tax the Rich” bumper stickers to further the battle for progressive taxation in New York. Last year, Wittner played a key role in re-unionizing UAlbany dining hall workers, who pressured their employer to recognize HERE Local 471 as the collective bargaining group for campus dining hall employees. Most recently, he helped organize a UAlbany forum to publicize alternatives to the so-called Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act.

“His lifetime of work for the labor movement and for other social justice causes clearly makes him an ideal candidate for the Nina Mitchell award,” Merbler wrote.

Janik and Wittner will be honored Oct. 1 during the 2010 Fall Delegate Assembly in Buffalo.

— Michael Lisi