{"id":6618,"date":"2025-02-01T01:51:51","date_gmt":"2025-02-01T06:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/?p=6618"},"modified":"2025-02-14T09:37:59","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T14:37:59","slug":"blast-from-the-past-pefs-generational-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-43-no-1\/blast-from-the-past-pefs-generational-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"Blast from the Past: PEF\u2019s generational impact"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"PEF
PEF Communications Reporter Najee Walker with his Grandmother Barbara Pizarro together at his wedding day celebration on May 2, 2024<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

February 14, 2025 —<\/em> When I applied to work at PEF in 2023, I admittedly knew very little about the union. While preparing for my job interview, I learned about the union\u2019s work and who PEF represents, but it wasn\u2019t until I joined the communications team that I found out my family had a PEF connection.<\/p>\n

Whenever I start a new job, I call my grandmother. In 2023, when I told her I was hired as a writer for the Public Employees Federation, she reacted with surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, PEF!\u201d she said. \u201cMy union! I love PEF.\u201d<\/p>\n

My grandmother, Barbara Pizarro, began working at Bronx Psychiatric on September 22, 1966. The hospital was only three years old. She started as a housekeeper and retired as an intensive case manager after 30 years of State service. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI stayed on the ward as an aide for many years,\u201d she told me. \u201cBut I have always been a learner and I\u2019ve always sought more.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the job, Pizarro learned how to give injections, administer medications and other typical nursing duties. It wasn\u2019t long before she was invited to join a \u201cFamily Studies Unit\u201d where she worked to assist families with therapy treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an evening clinic, so it was often the whole family,\u201d she recalled. \u201cI always felt my rapport with the families was good, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The unit eventually dissolved, and she moved to a medication research unit, then the education and training department and later a file management position. In 1983, encouraged by her co-workers, she earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in psychology <\/span>from the College of New Rochelle.<\/p>\n

A management shake-up at Bronx Psychiatric increased her job responsibilities. She recalled being asked to file an important report, something she had never actually done.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told my supervisor that I\u2019d never put together a report like that before, but that I knew where to find all the information,\u201d Pizarro said. \u201cHe told me to do my best.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo your best\u201d is a philosophy Pizarro has always followed. Her grandmother instilled it in her, along with the value and dignity of work.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe always said to just do your best and be proud of the work you\u2019ve done,\u201d Pizarro said.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the report filed by my grandmother would exceed expectations. Eventually, after being urged by her supervisor, she went back to school and earned a double Master\u2019s degree in Social Work and Administration.<\/p>\n

During her career, she rose from a Grade 7 to a Grade 19. When she first entered State service in 1966, she was a member of CSEA, which was considered an \u201cassociation\u201d and not yet a union. When she reached the professional ranks at Bronx Psychiatric, she joined PEF.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey called those of us at Tier 1 (of the State pension plan) dinosaurs,\u201d she laughed. \u201cBut when I saw what I could potentially get after my years of state service, I knew it was for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pizarro recalls going to Yonkers<\/span> to attend an informational membership meeting about her pension benefits. The promise of retiring at 55 impressed her.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had someone there who would tell you how much you\u2019d make if you stayed,\u201d she said. \u201cI remember a colleague was unsure about the pension. But they came around once they saw the numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, when Pizarro needed help paying her mortgage, she learned that PEF was a part of the AFL-CIO, who had a benefit to help negotiate mortgage rates. She dropped hers in half thanks to her union membership.<\/p>\n

Today, as a PEF retiree, Pizarro is still benefiting from her union.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecently, I found out about the Sun Life Insurance through MBP. I signed up because I needed dental<\/a>,\u201d she said. \u201cNow I have a good dentist that isn\u2019t too far from my home.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was at a work reunion last year when she got to tout one final achievement to her old colleagues from Bronx Psychiatric.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told them that my grandson works for PEF, and they were all shocked and happy for me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

My grandmother is hopeful about PEF\u2019s future, and while she knows there may be a difficult road ahead, she says members need to find strength in the fact that they aren\u2019t traveling it alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know sometimes people do not talk about what is going on at their workplace,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I hope, and I know, that PEF can find a way to figure out what is going on in places where people feel afraid to speak up. PEF does a tremendous job based on how many people they represent.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

February 14, 2025 — When I applied to work at PEF in 2023, I admittedly knew very little about the union. 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