Sticker campaign, solidarity resolve Glendale security issue

By DEBORAH A. MILES
For more than five months, PEF members who work at the Glendale state office building have been concerned about the lack of security.

It was just after the mandatory workplace-violence-prevention inspection was completed to evaluate the security in February, that managers at the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) pulled the security guard from the 1st floor lobby area — a position filled for the last 11 years.

According to PEF Division 399 leaders Kathy D’Arminio and Richard Fletcher, no one really knows why.

No serious incidents have occurred because of a lack of security, but D’Arminio, PEF’s health and safety chair, said, “It’s like leaving your front door unlocked. It’s an accident waiting to happen.”

Fletcher said a number of issues have arisen such as people tailgating by following an employee who has to swipe a security card to get in.

PEF members at OTDA joined members from the state Insurance Fund (SIF), Department of Labor (DOL) and Department of Motor Vehicles, who also occupy the building, taking a united stand.

On May 29, most of the 1,000 employees at the worksite participated in a sticker campaign – ‘Security is a Priority’ – in a mobilization effort led by D’Arminio.

“There is strength in numbers. The sticker campaign showed management the unity and solidarity throughout the building. Members of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) joined us in the sticker campaign,” D’Arminio said. “Managers from the different agencies then came together because of union pressure.”

She also sent a letter to state Sen. Tom Libous and Assembly Member Donna Lupardo at the beginning of May asking for support to resolve the safety concerns of these state employees.

Change came through discussions at labor-management meetings, when managers even complimented the stickers and actually wore them at the meetings, according to Fletcher.

“At first, managers were saying security is the responsibility of every employee,” Fletcher said. “We have other guard stations on the 3rd and 4th floors. When a guard needed to be relieved for a break or lunch, no one was there. Then management recruited CSEA and PEF administrative employees to staff the stations. It was not a good solution,” Fletcher said.

“The union pressured managers to talk to each other and try to resolve the problem,” he said.

D’Arminio said she was supported in dealing with management by Fletcher, PEF Division 240 steward Cathy Kozlowski (SIF) and Heather Gaeta, Division 281 council leader and Executive Board member for DOL.

“That meeting finally made a difference,” D’Arminio said. “We feel confident the agency managers are working together to get the security back in the building that we need. This issue is just another example of how important it is for members to mobilize, be unified and to care. It does make a difference.