DETERMINED DEMONSTRATORS — PEF members and leaders from the Disability Determinations Division’s Brooklyn office take a strong public stance against the state’s plans to close their office. Holding signs at this July rally are Barbara Redd, Germaine Greco, Jeffrey Kassel, Division 192 Council Leader Leonard Mangano, Robert Diaz and Amanda Bonilla.
Members mobilize to block state’s plan for Brooklyn office
PEF fights closing office for disabled
By SHERRY HALBROOK
PEF members at the state Division of Disability Determinations’ Brooklyn office are fighting hard to block a state plan to close that office and transfer the nearly 200 employees to offices in Manhattan and Queens.
They say the move would pose needless hardships for their disabled clients and for staff.
“The subways don’t run directly between Brooklyn and Queens. It will be an hour and a half commute each way for people who live in Brooklyn to take the subway into Manhattan and change trains to travel back out to Jamaica Queens,” says Jeffrey Kassel, a PEF Division 192 steward and officer at the Brooklyn DDD office.
The obstacles are even worse for the disabled clients in Brooklyn, who come to the DDD offices for hearings to defend their eligibility to continue receiving federal Social Security disability benefits or Supplemental Security Income, Kassel says.
Office handles big caseload
Last year, the Brooklyn office held approximately 1,000 hearings and handled 36,000 cases — all involving Brooklyn residents, says PEF Vice President Pat Baker. “That’s as much or more than the entire DDD workload for some entire states.”
After 11 years in downtown Brooklyn, Kassel says the DDD staff have learned which local physicians will provide the necessary detail when they report their conclusions about clients disabilities.
“The Brooklyn DDD office has been recognized as a model of efficiency and innovation for the entire state, but they will lose that if the state breaks up the team and sends the staff off to other boroughs,” Baker says.
Had to act fast
Baker, Vice President Ken Brynien, PEF Region 11 Coordinator Alan Schulkin, and Division 192 Council Leader Leonard Mangano were at the union’s Executive Board meeting in Albany on June 21 when Mangano, who also represents the DDD members on the board, learned the agency had just announced plans to close and begin transferring staff in October.
Mangano quickly enlisted the help of the regional and statewide PEF leaders and PEF staff in developing a strategy for blocking the move.
Changing political tides
During the ’80’s, the state moved large numbers of state workers into downtown Brooklyn as part of a successful effort to revitalize it. But now that the area is starting to thrive, the state appears to be steadily abandoning it, say Kassel and other PEF leaders.
The state recently closed its Workers Compensation Board office in Brooklyn and may also remove 1,800 Metropolitan Transit Authority employees.
“We suspect the plan to move these offices out of Brooklyn is politically motivated, and we developed a plan to apply political counter pressure in every way we can,” Baker says. “We’ve already had a great response from our members and from Brooklyn political leaders.”
So far, all three of the Democratic candidates for Brooklyn borough president and several state lawmakers representing the district have spoken out in opposition to closing the Brooklyn DDD office.
“We’re putting a lot of political pressure on the landlord, but the challenge now is to get the state back to the bargaining table to renew the lease,” Kassel says.
“It’s really gratifying to see the entire membership get behind this. They are enthusiastic and determined,” Baker says. “This is really the best example I’ve seen of member mobilization.”