I couldn't help but smile as I read a report in Long Island's daily newspaper, Newsday, with this headline: "Jones Beach lifeguards protest budget cuts for L.I. parks."

While NYSUT is very disappointed at the severe and potentially dangerous cuts in services to beaches throughout Long Island and all of New York state and will lobby to have cuts restored, the smile on my face was because the New York State Lifeguard Corps is NYSUT.

The media likes to call NYSUT the "powerful teachers' union" and, of course, we are. But we're so much more.

We're also a lifeguards' union, having recently affiliated with the 1,500-member New York State Lifeguard Corps. Those were NYSUT members — and their supporters — protesting cutbacks at beaches and parks.

In fact, Richard Siegelman of the Oyster Bay-East Norwich Faculty Council, who frequently contributes his witty observations to the New York Teacher letters column, wonders on the facing page if we're going to now become NYSULT, incorporating "lifeguards" into our name. We're not, although the "L" could also stand for librarians, lab technicians, laborers …

It is true: We're now a union of lifeguards and teachers. And so many more.

We're a union of nurses and school bus drivers. We're a union of college professors, food service workers and municipal employees. We're a union in the public sector and the private sector with great private-sector leaders such as Nick Zawacki, president of the Association for Retarded Citizens Employees Union, celebrating its 30th year as a local. (Nick's melodic voice kicked off our RA in Buffalo last month.)

That Newsday story was just one of several recent reminders that NYSUT is a diverse union in its membership and the professions we represent. Vice President Kathleen Donahue once referred to us as a quilt, with separate and distinct pieces threaded together as a cohesive whole. It's an apt description.

Our diversity has been on full and proud display of late. On the same day that lifeguards were rallying on the beaches of Long Island, hundreds of our health care members were in Albany taking part in an informative forum on issues important to them.

Many of those same health care professionals will be back in Albany early next month as part of a special lobby day at the Capitol. While NYSUT's health care constituents number only about 15,000 — a fraction of our more than 600,000 members — they are a forceful group that successfully works to ensure their concerns are integral to NYSUT's overall agenda.

An excellent example of this solidarity was on May 12, when thousands of New Yorkers — unionists, students, clergy and others — marched at the Capitol to support farm workers in their struggle for respect under state labor law. This was a remarkable coalition that allowed all of us to shed our labels in order to stand together for basic worker rights. I was proud that so many NYSUT members and staff participated.

NYSUT's diversity — its pluralism — is the source of its strength. By representing so many different voices on so many different issues, NYSUT has the credibility and influence it needs to be heard by policymakers.

Committee of 100

As I put the finishing touches on this column, another 500 or so of our most active members are convening in Albany to advocate at the Capitol on a wide range of issues. It's one of several opportunities we provide each year for our constituencies to work shoulder to shoulder, and to support — and understand — one another.

While most of the budget issues were resolved earlier in the spring, there are still many bills on the table that directly and indirectly affect the work we do and those we serve. Hundreds of NYSUT members — armed with relevant information and strong opinions — fanned throughout the Legislative Office Building to discuss with their lawmakers a variety of issues, including legislation that:

• increases unemployment insurance benefits and expands their application to other displaced workers while transitioning to new employment;
• provides unemployment insurance benefits to part-time professional faculty in higher ed;
• requires all state buildings, especially school buildings, to meet green, health, and high-performance standards, reducing energy and maintenance costs while providing cleaner air, improved lighting, and reduced exposure to toxins;
• protects property taxpayers who need it the most from property tax "overload" by implementing a circuit-breaker tax relief program; and
• requires school districts to develop and implement programs to prevent workplace violence.

In addition to advocating for legislation we support, our volunteer lobbyists also made it very clear that their union strongly opposes the proposed Tier 5 plan that would put future public employees' pension benefits in jeopardy. It's a shortsighted proposal that would institutionalize long-term inequity.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all our members who, since January, have visited with their state and federal lawmakers in Albany, Washington, D.C., and in their district offices to discuss NYSUT's legislative agenda.

These face-to-face conversations go a long way toward reminding elected officials that their policies affect real people. You, from every profession we represent, carried the message on behalf of not only your profession, but every profession within our union.

With more than 600,000 real people making up our great union, we know that there are issues and positions, concerns and priorities that do not reflect the opinion of all our members.

But diversity of opinion in a pluralistic organization such as NYSUT is something to be cherished and honored. It makes us stronger. It makes us responsive. It makes us accountable.

It makes us NYSUT, a Union of Professionals.