Capitol Confidential By Amanda Fries on February 1, 2021 at 9:27 AM
ALBANY Although a temporary remote-work agreement was recently extended to April, New York’s force unions say the majority of their members have returned to offices.
Both the Civil Service Employees Association and the Public Employees Federation, unions representing over 100,000 state employees across New York, said most of their members have returned to offices or never left if they were considered essential workers but labor leaders continue to question bringing employees to offices if they have successfully worked from home.
PEF spokesman Rob Merrill said from the beginning of the pandemic the labor union has thought it was “foolish” to bring any state employee back to a work setting who has successfully worked from home during the height of the health crisis.
Office of Rep. Greg Meeks
Rep. Gregory Meeks refers to himself as an “elected official by accident,” though he’s been a public servant from a young age.
Growing up in East Harlem, Meeks says he was inspired by the civil rights movement and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall to attend Howard University School of Law and eventually become an attorney.
Prior to running for public office, Meeks worked as a Queens County assistant district attorney, a prosecutor for a special anti-narcotics task force, and a chief administrative judge for New York state’s worker compensation system.
In 1992, he was elected to the state Assembly, and in 1998 he won a special election to represent New York’s Fifth Congressional District. While in office, Meeks has co-chaired the National Democratic Congressional Committee Trade Task Force and has chaired the House Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions. In the upcoming session, Meeks will become the first Afr
A.M. Roundup: Counties worried seniors being frozen out of vaccination sign-ups By Brendan J. Lyons on January 18, 2021 at 8:54 AM
Many of New York’s county leaders are worried that seniors are being frozen out of the state’s vaccination plans with tech savvy individuals and unions grabbing up many of the appointments at state-run mass-vaccination centers. (TU)
Here’s the rest of your roundup:
Albany and many other cities are seeing increasingly violent protests from last year’s bedlam that engulfed the city when protesters clashed with police in the wake of George Floyd’s death to two weeks ago, when a pro-Trump rally ended in bloodshed at the state Capitol and several people arrested for weapons possession. (TU)
Labor Union Objects to Prison Closures PUBLISHED 2:06 PM ET Jan. 08, 2021 PUBLISHED January 8, 2021 @2:06 PM
SHARE
The plan to close three prisons in New York in the coming months was criticized on Friday by the Public Employees Federation, the second-largest public workers labor organization in the state.
At the same time, PEF President Wayne Spence called for COVID vaccinations to be made available now to staff at the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.
All together, New York plans to close three prison facilities in different regions of upstate New York. Recent alarming news reports have confirmed what PEF has said since we learned about the planned closures of the Watertown, Gowanda and Clinton Annex Correctional Facilities: Now is not the time to transfer prison staff to new assignments and crowd the system with more inmates in fewer facilities, Spence said in a statement.
Fewer Inmates Means Fewer Prisons: State to Close 3 Facilities by March thechiefleader.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thechiefleader.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.