WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: Pictured above: Beth Pyskaty is the new United Way of Greater Niagara’s (UWGN) Labor Liaison to the Niagara-Orleans AFL-CIO Central Labor Council. The long-time New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) Member and Niagara-Wheatfield High School Teacher is looking to carry on the rich tradition of Organized Labor’s involvement in helping the variety of worthwhile, non-profit United Way entities that are always there to help a variety of people when the need arises. (WNYLaborToday.com Photos)

(SANBORN, NEW YORK) – For 20 years, Bill Jakobi was the face of Organized Labor at the United Way of Greater Niagara (UWGN), working hard to build a beneficial relationship between the area’s Unions and the UWGN that in the end helped raise a great amount of money and donations for a variety of worthwhile, non-profit entities that are always there to help a variety of people when the need arises.

And before that, it was the legendary Labor Leader Earl Frampton, who held the same position for a number of years and helped mentor Jakobi, his successor.

But now, there’s a new face of Labor at the UWGN - a new Labor Liaison to the Niagara-Orleans AFL-CIO Central Labor Council: Beth Pyskaty, long-time New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) Member and Niagara-Wheatfield High School Teacher (as well as a Member of the Starpoint Schools’ Board of Education) who is carrying on the rich tradition of Labor’s involvement with the United Way.

“She’s ‘doing a great job,’” said Niagara-Orleans Labor Council President Jim Briggs (Pictured below with Pyskaty at a recent Labor Council Meeting), who worked closely with Jakobi over the years, speaking to him on a daily basis and serving as his right-hand man at the UWGN.

“She’s ‘very passionate and sincere in the work she does.’  She ‘comes from a Union’ and ‘she is the first’ person (to hold the position) ‘who hasn’t come out of an industrial or manufacturing’ Union. ‘She’s the first person who has taken this position that has a different perspective when it comes to motivating people to participate (in the United Way) - and she has her own reach into a lot of places that that have not been reached before.’ And, her ‘keeping’ the Labor Council ‘in the forefront of the community is very important to the United Way,’” Briggs told WNYLaborToday.com.

From raising money from the Union Community to help the UWGN’s annual fundraising drive to the Labor Council’s wildly successful and yearly Labor’s Night At The Races event (which has raised more than $200,000 over the years for the United Way) to adopting several needy families during the Holiday Season to its individual Members and Leaders participating in the UWGN’s Annual Day of Caring event - Labor has been out in front when it comes to the United Way.

Denise Abbott - the President of the Buffalo AFL-CIO Central Labor Council who serves as Secretary of the Niagara-Orleans Labor Council, is a Board Member of the UWGN and has served as Labor Chair of the United Way’s annual fundraising drive, acknowledges the “amazing and incredible” results Jakobi accomplished over the years.

Now Abbott said Pyskaty brings a “new vibrancy” to the job, with “‘a lot of new ideas on what the United Way needs.’”

“There is an ‘excitement because of the knowledge she brings’ as a School Teacher - ‘she knows how to ask people for help,’” Abbott tells WNYLaborToday.com. “Labor ‘has always been there for our community to do what is always needed.’ ‘And it’s not just when people are in need (because of a loss of job or a disaster in their lives), it’s also the children.’ Niagara County (where Abbott lives) ‘is very near and dear to me and I am proud of what Labor has been able to achieve.’ ‘We need to make people aware of the great things we have done.’”

The UWGN says supporting youth development initiates a beneficial cycle of empowerment, unity and emerging leadership, as well as mitigating adverse outcomes, stimulates economic progress and nurtures a diverse and prosperous community.

As such, in 2024, the UWGN invested $346,000 into 15 youth programs that impacted 26,801 young people. 

UWGN President & CEO Andrea Gray (pictured below on the right with Pyskaty) is “thrilled” to have such a Labor representative as Pyskaty sitting in once was Jakobi’s seat: “I ‘am thrilled and am so happy to have her.’ We ‘miss’ Bill ‘and she certainly has some big shoes to fill because of the really strong relationship Bill built with Labor.’ But Beth ‘jumped right in and she fits in perfectly.’ She also has a ‘very strong relationship’ in Education, ‘which is very important to us.’”

“Labor, of course, ‘is very important’ to the United Way,” she told WNYLaborToday.com. “More than fifty percent (of the more than $500,000 raised to fund the UWGN’s annual budget) ‘comes from Labor.’ ‘We take a lot of pride in that because it is the history of the United Way.’ Beth’s ties and relationship ‘will help strengthen that and help keep us growing.’”

Pyskaty, who was contemplating retirement after 30 years of teaching, received a call from Labor Council President Briggs, who was searching for Jakobi’s replacement: “I ‘wasn’t ready’ to retire. I ‘loved’ teaching. I ‘had to take the (retirement) incentive, but I didn’t want to be at home.’  Jim called and suggested the job to me. ‘It was perfect for me because it was educational, it involved Unionism - which I am very dedicated to, and community service.’”

Having served as AFL-CIO Liaison to the NYSUT-affiliated Niagara-Wheatfield Teachers Association, as well as serving as its Political Action Committee Chairperson, Pyskaty hit the ground running once she got involved in her new job.

From helping coordinate the recently-held Niagara-Orleans Labor Council’s Workers’ Memorial Observance (pictured below), to the Labor’s Night At The Races Event (which takes place in June) to helping recognize several area Labor Leaders at the UWGN’s Awards Breakfast to running the Council’s Holiday Season effort and adopting a number of needy families, Pyskaty has been busy to say the least.

In addition, she put together an introductory letter that was sent to Unions across Niagara County and began meeting with their Leadership, has made a number of individual presentations to Unions for the UWGN’s annual campaign drive (which is looking to once again raise more than $500,000) that involves securing Members’ making paycheck deductions - and started a weekly e-mail Labor Round-Up that details what Labor needs to know, as well as a Labor Factoid that Unions can print and hang in their Union Halls or workplace breakrooms to further educate their Memberships about the good being brought about by Organized Labor.

“‘It’s all about supplying them with information that will help’ Workers,” Pyskaty told WNYLaborToday.com. “And I’m ‘getting good feedback (from her meetings with Labor Leadership and their Members) when it comes to them giving to the United Way, whose focus is now been put on helping our youth.’”

Pyskaty knows the shoes she’s filling and readily admits: “I’m not Bill (Jakobi).”

“‘I will find my own path, but I am so appreciative he has been a mentor and I am very grateful to him.’  He is a ‘good friend and a good friend of Labor,’” she said. “The ‘biggest task is for our community to know what the United Way is and how they can support’ the United Way.  ‘I’ve always strived to make connections.’ ‘It’s just about being visible.’”