The Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) is a labor union, now Local 1000 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Founded by civil service workers for the State of New York as the Association of State Civil Service Employees on Oct. 24, 1910, the CSEA (as it was renamed in 1946) affiliated with AFSCME in 1978. It now represents state employees; local government and school district employees; and certain private sector employees and daycare providers throughout the state. With approximately 265,000 members, it is the largest constituent unit in AFSCME.[1]
CSEA is made up of more than 375 locals and more than 1,000 units (http://www.csearockland.org) deployed in six geographic regions throughout New York State. Locals have an important role to build the union, protect and improve terms and conditions of employment of the membership and protect individual rights. Each local elects a president, at least one vice president, a secretary and a treasurer. The Local president is ultimately responsible for everything that goes on in that local. In CSEA's State and Private Sector Divisions, locals assist individual members with grievances, notices of discipline, collective bargaining and so forth. In CSEA's Local Government Division these activities are often conducted at the Unit level.
Units are subdivisions of the locals of which they are a member, and have the same basic structure as locals; a president, one or more vice presidents, a secretary and a treasurer. The Unit president is ultimately responsible for everything which transpires in the unit, and is directly responsible to the local. The unit has the same basic responsibilities as the local: to build the union, to protect and improve the terms and conditions of employment of its membership and to protect the rights of individual unit members. In practice, this means that the unit negotiates and polices the collective bargaining agreement, assists members who have possible contract grievances or who have received notices of discipline, and communicates both with its own membership and with the local of which it is a member.
The library of the University at Albany, The State University of New York contains extensive historical records about CSEA.[2]