Subway Ads Usher In New School Year
by Yuridia Peña
On Sept. 5, CSA’s “Welcome Back to School” campaign will debut inside subway cars and on the backs of buses; this was just one of many multimedia projects handled at union headquarters this summer to increase advocacy efforts for CSA members and the school communities they serve.
The four supervisors chosen to grace the subway posters this month are Assistant Principal Freddy Budde, (MS 322, Manhattan); Principal Rashid Ferrod Davis, (PTECH, Brooklyn); Education Administrator Sandy Kassan, (Office of Student Enrollment); and Day Care Director Stephanie Lee, (Chung Pac Chrystie School-Age Day Care Center, Manhattan.) This is the eighth year of the popular campaign that welcomes back students and parents to school as well with familiarize the public as to “who we are.”
Award Winners
The union’s newspaper – the CSA News – the union’s website and the union’s Facebook page took home eight Metro NY Labor Communications Council awards. Awards were distributed at Metro’s annual conference at the Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies in Manhattan on June 17.
Prizes are awarded in circulation categories. The CSA News’ circulation is 13,000.
- Second Place, Editorial, Ernest A. Logan for Put Children First in Charter School Debate, CSA News March 2010.
- Second Place, Best Headline, When You Have to Cut Through the Bone, CSA News March 2010.
- Second Place, Best Photograph, Yuridia Peña, Day Care Receives Reprieve, front page, CSA News September 2010.
- Third Place, Best Feature, Yuridia Peña, When Bigger is Better, CSA News October 2010.
- Third Place, Unique Performance, Special 2010 Conference Report, CSA News December 2010.
- Special Mention, Best Graphic Design, CSA News.
Other awards:
- Second Place, General Excellence, CSA website.
- Second Place, Best Social Media for Facebook page.
Unions submitted a wide-range of stories and photos that conveyed information about political activities, contract struggles and job performance. Entries reflected the scores of writers, editors, photographers, graphic/web artists and radio producers who work for public and private sector trade unions and organizations. (Metro is affiliated with the International Labor Communications Association AFL-CIO and with the NYC Central Labor Council.)
In other news, three staff members were selected to attend a certificate program given at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. CSA President Ernest Logan selected Antoinette Isable, Assistant Director of Communications, Alithia Rodriguez-Rolon, Assistant Director for Governmental Affairs, and David Grandwetter, CSA Counsel as the union’s 2012 fellows. They spent a week in classes, workshops and seminars at the Ithaca school, and will continue their studies online and in the city for a year. The Institute’s curriculum covers leadership and management skills and tackles economic, political and social questions. Presentations are led by Cornell faculty, union and community leaders.
Three CSA officers were in the 2011 cohort, and finished the program this summer: CSA Executive Vice President Peter McNally, Treasurer Laverne Burrowes, and Vice President Henry Rubio. As part of a culminating project, the three developed a video advocating for city-subsidized Day Care. The video was filmed at the Helen Owen Carey Child Development Center in Brooklyn’s Park Slope. (View the video at www.csa-nyc.org.)
Last but not least, CSA has been fortifying its lobbying efforts using new media. To this end, the union launched an “advocacy tool,” a new feature on the CSA website and Facebook page. The tool enables members to easily sign petitions as well as email local and state lawmakers. (Editor’s Note: The advocacy tool is only available when the union is asking for member participation.)
