(ITHACA, NEW YORK) - Jeanne Grace is a Forester for the City of Ithaca.  Her duties include supervising all the City’s parks and street trees and overseeing park maintenance.  She freely admits that interpreting legal documents and other contracts isn’t her strong suit.  That’s why when Grace and fellow Members of the City Executive Association (CEA) - a 20-Member association of Ithaca Municipal Employees - felt they were being outmaneuvered at the bargaining table, they reached out to the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) for help.

“We’ve been talking about affiliating for a while, but lately the City has taken more of a hard-line approach to negotiations,” CEA President Grace said, explaining that once the City brought an attorney to negotiation sessions, she worried they were at a disadvantage.

“The city attorney would say something, and we weren’t sure if it was correct or not - we needed someone with negotiation experience,” Grace said.

After a full year without a contract, the group turned to the New York State AFL-CIO for advice about affiliating.

CEA partnered with other AFL-CIO-affiliated Ithaca-Employee Unions last Fall to advocate for wage increases and other issues as the Ithaca Workers Coalition.

They were impressed by the resources available to Union Members.

An AFL-CIO contact suggested reaching out to NYSUT.

“Even though we weren’t affiliated, they went out of their way to help us,” said Jeremy Miller, a City Fleet Manager and CEA Member who helped Grace explore options. “Only when we got together with other city unions were we able to get any traction at all.  We saw the power of being united and wanted to be part of that.”

Key to affiliating with NYSUT was CEA’s ability to maintain its identity.

“We’re small, but everyone is very involved and interested and while we wanted the other resources NYSUT provides, we also wanted to maintain our autonomy,” said Grace.

Although neither Grace nor Miller expected to affiliate with a Union renowned for representing Educators, NYSUT Members work in a wide array of professions, from health care to municipal work and even Lifeguards.

Once CEA Leaders made the decision to affiliate with NYSUT, Members unanimously approved the measure.

Surprising to Grace was the City’s reaction.

“They received the letter (detailing CEA’s affiliation) and just said ‘alright,’” she said.

To Read This Labor News Story In Its Entirety, Go To: Ithaca municipal workers are NYSUT's newest members