Former City Council member Mary Pinkett
urged members to fight to defend and strengthen the civil service
system.
As the keynote speaker Oct. 30 at the DC 37 Civil Service Committee's
celebration of Civil Service Month, Ms. Pinkett called public employees
the backbone of the city.
For over a century, civil servants have played a central role in
providing the vital government services and infrastructure that
made New York City the strongest economic center in the country
and the financial capital of the world.
Weakening the system
But Ms. Pinkett expressed her distress over the deterioration of
the civil service system during the last dozen years under the Dinkins
and Guiliani administrations. Tragically, those administrations
weakened the system by failing to schedule exams, dramatically increasing
the city's part-time and temporary workforce and keeping tens of
thousands of provisional workers on the payroll, Ms. Pinkett said.
"What you need are permanent civil servants," said Ms.
Pinkett, a former president of Social Service Employees Union Local
371. The local has a long history at the forefront of the struggle
to defend civil service. Its current president, Charles Ensley,
chairs the DC 37 Civil Service Committee, whose co-chair is Edward
W. Hysyk, a former Local 371 member who is now DC 37 secretary and
president of Data Processing Employees Local 2627.
Ms. Pinkett noted that the civil service system and union movement
are intertwined. Civil service issues have always been top priorities
for municipal unions in negotiations with the city. DC 37 is frequently
in court, using lawsuits to compel the city to adhere to civil service
rules (see 'Union sues, PAA
lists move').
Ms. Pinkett said the civil service system is the "best way"
to combat bias. Civil service has provided a pathway to the middle
class for tens of thousands of minorities and women, who historically
have suffered from workplace discrimination elsewhere.
Ms. Pinkett, an African American, recalled that her father migrated
from South Carolina to New York City in search of a better life.
He worked as a day laborer but was blacklisted because of his workplace
agitation. Eventually, he found a secure job as one of the city's
first African American sanitation workers.
"When I came into the system, you were looking at when the
next exam would be and you were talking about moving up - not layoffs,"
Ms. Pinkett said.
Passing her first exam
Ms. Pinkett recalled when she was notified that she had passed her
first exam and would become a civil servant.
"I was exuberant," she said. "That was when civil
service meant you were to have a secure job with regular raises
and benefits. You worked in a horrible little office, but you had
your pension."
At the meeting, which the committee organized with the help of Program
Director Frances M. Curtis, Mr. Ensley presented a leadership award
to Claude Fort, president of Civil Service Technical Guild Local
371. Mr. Ensley praised Local 375 members for their work in designing
and overseeing the rebuilding of the No. 1 and No. 9 subway tunnel
at Ground Zero, a project that came in ahead of schedule and under
budget.
The committee also presented a leadership award to Mark Rosenthal,
DC 37 treasurer and president of Motor Vehicle Operators Local 983.
Mr. Ensley praised Mr. Rosenthal for convincing the city to use
federal dollars to help welfare recipients move into civil service
jobs.
—Gregory N. Heires