Paying the Price: Strikes meant sacrifice for unionists and their families
Strikes meant sacrifice for unionists and their families
Lorraine Bonner won't forget the sinking feeling at "three minutes to midnight" Sept. 29, 1997, when St. John's Hospital made a final offer of no raise and demanded givebacks from its health professionals.
"Right then, I knew we'd have to strike," said Bonner, president of the St. John's Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals in Smithtown, Long Island.
"For the 10 days the strike lasted, I couldn't sleep, worrying about our members," she said. "It was the worst thing I've ever been through; but the strike led to good things."
For St. John's and thousands of other NYSUT members, strikes have been the ultimate weapon, but one that members have wielded at great personal sacrifice.
North Syracuse Education Association President Sylvia Matousek recalled "horrendous financial burdens" when the NSEA struck in 1976 to stop the district's attempt to roll back just-cause dismissal and class-size clauses.
Teachers Bob and Barbara Doyle each lost 20 days' pay, counting the Taylor Law's penalty of two day's salary for each day on strike. "With five children, it was tough," said Bob Doyle.
Joseph and Carol Drenchko "celebrated" their 21st anniversary at the Jamesville penitentiary, where NSEA leadership served a seven-day sentence for violating the Taylor Law's ban on strikes. "My wife came to the jail. We called it the 'Jamesville Hilton.' I was in prison uniform." He still regrets missing his daughter's appearance in an all-state concert.
Frankenstein movie
Inmates were required to take a medical exam. Matousek recalled walking down dark corridors with the clang of barred doors echoing behind her. "I felt I was in a Frankenstein movie. We emerged into a huge, bright room, like a warehouse," she said. "I thought: 'They're going to drain every ounce of blood from me!' I screamed at the doctor: 'If you lay a finger on me, I'll sue you and the state of New York.'"
Strikers talk of the anguish of withholding services. "Teachers maintain their sense of responsibility to students," said Pat Longo, South Colonie Teachers Association's president during its 19-day strike in 1975. "Watching the school buses arrive and depart every day was the toughest thing," said Longo.
Family ties were tested. "Many teachers had just purchased houses," Longo said.
Also striking at the same time nearby were the Shenendehowa Teachers Association and the Schenectady Federation of Teachers, whose leaders served jail sentences.
Levittown TA President Charles Kemnitzer said people still carry emotional scars from the hostility exhibited by some during the Long Island local's 34-day walkout in 1978. "People carried signs that read: 'Starve to death!' You don't forget such images."
Yet strikes have strengthened solidarity and brought out the best in members. Joseph Barni, president of the Lakeland Federation of Teachers during its 42-day strike in 1977, praised organized labor. "Every bit of help we received from locals and labor councils across the state delivers a message to all school boards ... that we stand together," he said. A year after the Westchester County local's teachers lost a half year's pay, they donated $1,300 to striking teachers in Levittown.
Most who struck now look back with pride and humor.
"Because we fought a battle back then means someone else won't have to fight it today," said Longo.
Today, he can laugh at the memory of getting pay checks of less than $1 after South Colonie's strike.
Did he frame one for posterity?
"Hell no," said Longo. "I cashed them. Every penny counted back then."