TEAMWORK — Mobilizing PEF Divisions 226 and 235 are:
Debbie Lee, Neila Cardus, Ellen Murphy, Carolyn Willson
and Kim Loccisano. — Photos by Margaret Messer
PEF divisions
discover solutions together
Partnering to
overcome mobilization challenges creates powerful
alliances
By SHERRY HALBROOK
Getting some of PEF’s more complex divisions fully
mobilized is a daunting task, but PEF leaders have
discovered a new formula for cutting it down to size.
They found that by collaborating with other divisions
facing similar challenges they can discover common
solutions and techniques for solving their problems, such
as members working for multiple agencies, at multiple
worksites or on multiple shifts.
As the result of one collaboration, PEF Division 235
— encompassing Rockland Psychiatric Center, Rockland
Children’s Psychiatric Center, Nathan Kline Research
Institute and several satellite clinics and offices
— and Division 226 at Helen Hayes Hospital (HHH)
have become the 99th and 100th PEF divisions to achieve
full mobilization.
In PEF Region 5, collaborations are yielding similar
success.
Two large, multi-agency, multi-worksite PEF divisions in
Region 5 have gained some surprising new insights as
together they tackled the tasks of mobilizing.
Where do you
start?
The process of developing complete, up-to-date lists of
division members and exactly where they work and on which
shifts, and then recruiting a willing member mobilizer
for every 10 members can be anything but easy.
“Can you imagine what a challenge it is to create a
workable mobilization network for a division that has
approximately 900 members from four different agencies
and spread out over 400 different work locations in seven
counties?” asked PEF Region 9 Coordinator Neila
Cardus, who chairs PEF’s Member Mobilization
Committee.
“Sometimes council leaders think they have to do
this job alone,” said PEF Assistant Director of
Mobilization and Education Margaret Messer. “We are
showing them that’s not true.”
“Region 5 Coordinator Mary Twitchell, who is a
member of Division 237, has worked with us to help its
leaders and the leaders of Division 281 clear some
enormous hurdles together,” Messer said. “They
are very close to completing that job.”
Division 237 includes PEF members at the Oxford
Veterans’ Home, as well as members from the state
Department of Correctional Services and the Office of
Children and Family Services. And Division 281 has an
equally broad base, that includes members at the state
Labor Department and other agencies.
Friends and allies
“Division 235 at Rockland had been trying to do this
for two years,” Cardus said, “and Division 226
Council Leader Carolyn Willson had felt overwhelmed
trying to do it at Helen Hayes.
“It wasn’t until we — Carolyn and Division
235 Council Leader Debbie Lee and other officers and
stewards from both divisions and I — sat down with
Messer and PEF training specialist Kim Loccisano for two
long nights in late August to sift through all of the
lists of members and worksites that it finally came into
focus,” Cardus added.
Everyone laughed, but shared Willson’s frustration
when she exclaimed, “I hate all of this!” as
she struggled with long lists of names in tiny print.
“It was tedious work, tear-your-hair-out work!”
said Lee. “But everybody pitched in and faced up to
the task with humor.
“Reading the names on all of these lists,” Lee
added, “I suddenly became aware of the big numbers
we have and that we can have real power by getting all of
these people mobilized in a network that crosses
disciplines and regions.”
“They worked really hard,” Messer said. “I
was very impressed with Division 235 Assistant Council
Leader Barbara Weber who seemed to know nearly every one
of the division’s 700 members, what they did and
where they worked. She even knew who had just retired.
Barbara was amazing.
“When Neila and I walked with Carolyn through Helen
Hayes Hospital, we found many little pockets of members  scattered throughout the facility.
It was the same situation they faced on a larger scale in
Division 235, so they worked together to come up with a
plan for identifying those pockets of people and finding
mobilizers for them,” Messer said.
“Debbie Lee told me that going through this process
together started a new alliance between Divisions 235 and
226,” Messer added.
“We need to partner,” Lee said. “This
gives me a good feeling about the strength of our union,
and public employees need that strength more than ever
today.”
WANT TO HELP? — Carolyn Willson asks Mary Slapp to
be a mobilizer.
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