If there’s one thing the 2020 election has in spades, it’s choices – and not just the choices between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, Mike Pence and Kamala Harris, and choi
By DIANE S. WILLIAMS October is Cancer Awareness Month but during a global pandemic that halted most social activities, Yvonne Mosquito, an SSEU Local 371 member and Children’s Sevices Community Coordinator found a way to moved forward with friends and raise funds and awareness. On Oct. 11 Mosquito rounded up nine coworkers and family to walk across the iconic Brooklyn Bridge and raise money for Making Strides breast cancer awareness. While official events were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people are donating to the fight for a cure that funds research and provides services like meals and transportation for people undergoing breast cancer treatment. “Breast cancer affects women and men,” Mosquito saId. After losing her grandmother Wilhelmina Pinder to breast cancer in 1996, Mosquito, a 21-year ACS worker, became a regular participant in the annual Making Strides fundraiser. “The nine of us walked with last year’s banner across the bridge from Brooklyn’s Tillary Street to Chambers Street in Manhattan and back,” Mosquito said. “Several people joined us as we walked. We wore our masks– and our pink!” Mosquito’s coworkers include friends Jacqueline Johnson, an ACS Family Court worker, and Local 1549 member Adria Bernardez. Mosquito also held a bake [...]— Oct 19
A recent Supreme Court decision allowed the Trump Administration to change the Census 2020 deadline to Thursday Oct. 15. Cutting the response time for New York City to TOMORROW, OCT. 15 at 11:59 PM, will adversely affect our number of seats in the House of Representatives, and future federal aid for schools, hospitals and health care, transportation and roads, and much more. DC 37 needs your help now in fighting for our city’s fair share and future. The 2020 Census count ends tomorrow Oct. 15 at 11:59 p.m. We cannot risk an undercounting of New York City residents that would cause us to lose billions of federal dollars that fund vital city services and our jobs. Read what’s at stake: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/us/supreme-court-census.html Please complete your 2020 Census at my2020Census.gov online or on your smartphone, or by calling 1-844-330-2020. Find out how your community is doing at: https://2020census.gov/en/response-rates.html Help spread the word and answer the 2020 Census by Oct. 15 and do your part to protect our city’s future! #LaborCounts #getcounted— Oct 14
Sisters and Brothers, We are 20 days away from the most critical moment in history! The upcoming 2020 Presidential Election Nov. 3 will be our only opportunity to elect new, proven leadership with the goal of preserving and protecting our country and our rights as workers! This is an anxious and difficult time for us all. As a nation we are being tested like never before. But AFSCME Never Quits! It is our duty to step up in order to protect our jobs, our benefits, and our UNION. Sisters and Brothers, we are counting on you to be the change we desperately need! We cannot afford to allow the Trump Administration or the global pandemic to continue to undermine everything we have worked hard for, or to derail our progress! How can you help? A simple phone call is all it takes. DC 37 needs volunteers to call and talk to our union sisters and brothers about the importance of voting in the upcoming general election to achieve change across the United States. Join us on Wednesday Oct. 14 for DC 37’s weekly virtual phonebank to call union members in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Click here to sign up!— Oct 14
POLITICAL ACTION VOTER INFO: Election Day is Nov. 3. Out of an abundance of caution during this COVID-19 pandemic, DC 37 urges you to vote by mail-in ballot. A full list of union-endorsed candidates is in the most recent issue of PEPTalk and www.dc37.net. Absentee ballot request deadline is Oct. 27. You must request a ballot by Oct. 27 and return it by mail, postmarked by Nov. 3, or in person on Nov. 3 by 9:00 p.m. Early voting starts Oct. 24 – Nov. 1. Can you volunteer to join DC 37’s phonebank team to make calls to the battleground state of Pennsylvania in support of the Biden/Harris ticket? Click here to sign up! ### DISABILITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETS OCT. 13 The DC 37 Disability Advisory Committee will meet Oct. 13, at 6 pm. Guest speaker Deborah Williams, director of the DC 37 Safety and Health Unit, will share the latest information on PPE, ventilation, training and return to work policies. The DAC will also recognize October as Cancer Awareness Month. Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://meetings.ringcentral.com/j/1499129747?pwd=UUYzZ1lNMDI0cnQybTQ2MDFvOEdxZz09 Meeting ID: 149 912 9747 Password: 004376 Dial in for the best audio experience using computer audio or iPhone one-tap: [...]— Oct 13
By DIANE S. WILLIAMS A Local 372 School Crossing Guard helped a man who passed out while crossing a busy intersection near P.S. 195 in Rosedale, Queens on Oct. 7. “It was my first day at the post and this man was pulling a very heavy cart. When he reached the yellow divider he slowed down and just collapsed,” said Crossing Guard Alana Dornford. “He hit his head. I went to help and immediately I called 911.” The man lay unconscious as Dornford redirected traffic on 149th Avenue around him. “One driver stopped to help. His mother was walking behind him and she held him in a sitting position as we waited for EMS to arrive,” Dornford said. The pedestrian regained consciousness before the ambulance arrived. Local 372 President Shaun D. Francois I, was in the school building and rushed to the incident. Dornford said, “This was the first time I had to respond to a medical emergency while on duty. I was a little nervous. I panicked a little but he told me I did the right thing.” Dornford works the intersection that has a stop sign but no traffic light. A Crossing Guard for three years, she said [...]— Oct 9
