Civil Service Employees Association history

In the 1930’s, CSEA lobbyists won the long fight to have the 72-hour work week abolished in state institutions.

The history of AFSCME began in 1932, as the country suffered through a severe economic depression, when a small group of white-collar professional state employees met in Madison, Wisconsin, and formed what would later become Wisconsin State Employees Union/Council 24.

And sure enough, in January, 1933 a Democratic senator introduced a bill in the state legislature that would dismantle the state's civil service system.WSEA leadership turned to the American Federation of Labor for help and was granted an AFL charter.

HGEA was started by Honolulu Board of Water Supply managerial employees in 1934 in response to a 10 percent pay cut.

In 1935, for example, the AFL opposed attempts to organize the unskilled and ultimately expelled a small group of member unions that were attempting to do so.

In 1937-38, HGEA President Charles Kendall and Frederick Ohrt pushed for classification and civil service laws to ensure fair pay and a job system based on merit, not political favoritism.

The expelled unions formed the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which by 1941 had assured the success of industrial unionism by organizing the steel and automobile industries.

A local Associated Federation of Labor representative wrote that HGEA "is more or less inactive except in name only" and that the group had been gradually disintegrating since the "blitz." By 1943, it had shrunk to less than 300 members.

More than 100 years later, the Civil Service Employees Association (as the association was renamed in 1946), is one of the largest, most influential unions in the United States.

A major turning point occurred in 1947 when membership was opened to local government workers.

HGEA had flirted with the idea of collective bargaining since 1949, when it lobbied to pass an act allowing public employees to choose an organization as their sole bargaining agent.

By 1953, the HGEA was split into three factions, each proposing different legislation.

Seeing the 1954 elections as its key to regain political clout, HGEA launched a voter registration drive and threw its support behind the reform-minded Democratic Party.

When the AFL and the CIO merged to form the AFL-CIO in 1955, they represented between them some 15 million workers.

After Hawaii achieved statehood in 1959, HGEA under Charles Kendall's leadership continued to lobby for other worker benefits.

In the 1960’s, CSEA lobbyists won grievance procedures for local government with more than 100 employees.

With a new decade came a new look for HGEA, as the General Assembly voted to incorporate the organization in 1961.

At the 1964 AFSCME International Convention, Wurf — running on a platform of more aggressive organizing, pursuit of collective bargaining rights for public employees, and union reform/union democracy — was elected the second International President.

Thousands gather in Memphis to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1968 Sanitation Workers’ Strike and the assassination of Doctor Martin Luther King Jr., who was in the city to support the workers, leading a call to action for economic and social justice for all working people.

By the end of 1969, several states had enacted collective bargaining laws and the union’s membership grew to more than 250,000.

In 1970, the state legislature passed the Hawaii Public Employment Collective Bargaining Law.

In 1971, HGEA organized its first unit - the educational officers of Unit 6.

Midnight, March 31, 1972.The first strike–ever–by New York State employees begins.

Saunders has worked for AFSCME in many capacities since 1978, most recently as executive assistant to AFSCME Pres.

Unit 9's registered professional nurses joined in 1979, bringing HGEA the strength and breadth of public worker representation it enjoys today.

The EBF has done such an outstanding job that in 1980 local governments became eligible to join up.

AFSCME's 60,000 member delegation, the largest from any single union, led the march.Solidarity Day was the last major public appearance for Jerry Wurf, who died in December, 1981 after a long illness.

Fortunately, this was partially eased in 1982 by the Triborough bill, a long-sought CSEA legislative goal which puts restrictions on contractual items that can be reduced when a settlement is imposed.

He started with the union in 1983, and was a union agent for two years.

He left Hawaii and lived on the mainland for a brief period, and returned to HGEA as a union agent in 1986.

In 1988, when the Internal Revenue Service decided to tax public employees’ unused benefits (such as vacation leave, sick leave, compensatory time, severance pay, disability pay and death benefits) CSEA mounted a fierce counter-attack.

Finally, a major staff restructuring took place in 1989 to make CSEA more responsive to our members.

The cold-blooded murder of four CSEA workers in a Social Services office in Watkins Glen in 1992 is a constant reminder that more still needs to be done.

In 1995, HGEA supported legislation that ended its right to strike.

The year 2000 started off in January by seeing over 20,000 CSEA members, together with other NYS unionists, mobilize and surround the State Office Building during Governor Pataki’s State of the State address.

In Sept 2001, CSEA mourns the loss of 5 of its members due to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

In 2004, the CSEA Schenectady County Unit is the first to establish a cost savvy prescription drug program utilizing Canadian pharmacies; this saves taxpayers as well as CSEA members.

AFSCME Convention delegates passed the 21st Century Resolution, creating a committee to examine every aspect of the union and to make recommendations to the 2006 AFSCME Convention.

In 2010 CSEA commenced its 2nd century as New York’s Leading Union.

In February 2011, nearly 200,000 Wisconsin public service employees, including more than 60,000 AFSCME members, lost the right to bargain collectively over health care, retirement and working conditions.

© 2016 HGEA AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO. All Rights Reserved.