PEF taking e-mail case to state Supreme Court
The continuing controversy over the right of PEF members to use e-mail to discuss union activities will soon be aired in court.
PEF associate counsel Steve Klein recently filed an Article 78 petition in state Supreme Court in Albany that seeks to nullify a decision made by the state Public Employment Relations Board regarding the e-mail privileges of the late C. Michael Darcy.
The PERB decision filed in October overturned the finding of an administrative law judge made earlier this year that upheld the right of Darcy — a former PEF trustee and long-time union activist — to use the e-mail system at the state Education Department to keep PEF members informed about union activities.
“PERB reversed it on a cold record,” said Klein. “That’s something heretofore unheard of. PERB boards don’t normally reverse on credibility grounds when they haven’t heard from the contestants, and the administrative law judge has.”
PERB Hearing Officer Kenneth Rooney had ruled that SED acted improperly in cutting off Darcy’s e-mail privileges in May 1999, because under the state’s Taylor Law union representatives are allowed to disseminate information related to legislation and contract negotiations even if some of the e-mails were critical of state elected and appointed officials.
But that wasn’t the way the PERB board, which includes three appointees of Gov. George Pataki, saw it. According to the PERB decision, Darcy continued to use SED’s e-mail system to communicate with PEF members after all SED employees had been advised that state equipment could not be used for any other purpose than departmental business
PEF has argued successfully before Rooney that this SED policy had not been enforced uniformly. “It became selective enforcement as soon as (the e-mails) had to do with union matters,” Klein said.
The PERB decision noted that it found no evidence of anti-union animus on the part of SED officials and that the appropriate response by Darcy was not to refuse to comply with the SED policy directive, but to “comply and seek redress through available legal channels.”
As part of the recent PS&T contract that PEF signed with the state, a side letter was included stating that any local policy regarding use of e-mail by union officials should be negotiated by the labor-management committee for that particular agency.
“We will take every step to turn this political and irrational PERB decision around,” said PEF President Roger Benson. “We will do it, not just because we are right, but in remembrance of Mike (who died two days after the PERB decision), a true fighter for the membership.”
FOND FAREWELL — Friends salute Mike Darcy (third from the left) at his retirement party, about two months before his death. — Photo by Bill Sachs
Darcy,
former PEF trustee, succumbs to cancer at 62
C. Michael Darcy, 62, died October 15 of cancer at St.
Clare’s Hospital in Schenectady.
Darcy, a supervisor of educational programs at the state
Education Department in Albany, was a longtime union
activist. He had retired from state service only weeks
before his death.
Survivors include his wife, Jonetta Jenner Darcy, his
father, two daughters, a son and six grandchildren.
Darcy had worked at the state Education Department for 20
years and had served in many elected offices in the
union.
“He will always be remembered for his advocacy on
behalf of PEF and its members, and he will be greatly
missed by all who knew him,” said PEF President
Roger Benson.
Darcy was a former PEF trustee, Executive Board member
and convention delegate. He was very active in PEF
Division 194, where he had served as a steward and
assistant council leader.
Darcy was disciplined by the state Education Department
in 1999 for using his e-mail at work to alert Division
194 members to PEF contract rallies and for other
correspondence related to his role as a union steward.
PEF fought the discipline and won, only to have that
favorable decision overturned just two days before
Darcy’s death. The union is now taking its case to
state Supreme Court.
Long after his illness had already taken a heavy toll on
his strength, Darcy continued to work and to fight for
the rights of PEF members.
Benson honored Darcy’s fearless, determined spirit
at a celebration of his life which attracted a large
group of family, friends, PEF members and staff.
“I remember when Division 194 elected Mike to be its
next labor-management chair,” Benson said. “A
heated argument erupted among the division stewards. But
they weren’t fighting over Darcy’s election.
They were fighting over who would have the pleasure of
notifying management.”
Another member recalled that someone asked Darcy at his
retirement party why the union always had to fight so
hard for its members.
“That’s what unions do,” Darcy answered.
Others at the celebration recalled how Darcy had demanded
the very highest standard of performance in himself and
inspired it in them.
Donations may be made in his memory to PEF’s Joseph
Scacalossi Memorial Scholarship Fund.
A formal memorial celebration and planting of a tree and
memorial stone in Darcy’s honor will be held at PEF
headquarters in Latham.