Movin’ on — with the help of labor/management grants

For 24 years, Fannye Reid showed up faithfully at the doorstep of Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, ready to work as a nurse’s aide, patient transportation supervisor or messenger escort. She was never late.

“Heat waves and snow storms, you can bet Fannye was there,” Reid said.

But then one day it snowed pink slips, and Reid — a loyal UUPer — was one of 162 employees who were left out in the cold in a 1992 personnel cutback.

“At the time that they handed me the letter, my husband was having major surgery,” she said.

“Being retrenched was very sad,” she added. “When my son was young, he used to play the drums at hospital parties.”

“It was a very difficult time for her,” said Barbara Habenstreit, vice president for professionals at Downstate’s UUP chapter.

Administrators offered Reid a job in another department, but with a significant drop in pay. They told her she had to make up her mind in 24 hours, she said.

That’s when her UUP representative, Helen Sackett, now deceased, talked to Reid about going to college. Sackett told her about the New York State/UUP Joint Labor/Management Committee on Employment, which provides financial assistance to union members for education and retraining when their University jobs are in jeopardy or lost.

So Reid — who doesn’t like to be late — took on a four-year program, finishing it in three years. She went to Audrey Cohen College in Manhattan for human services and business administration, graduating in 1996 with a bachelor of science degree in human services.

“Without the grant, I would not have been able to go to college,” she said frankly, grateful to UUP for its help.

Her first job out of college was as a case manager at a mental health center. She is now employed by Miracle Makers, an organization that offers day care, mental health counseling and help for substance abuse. Reid’s job is to coordinate the children’s after-school programs.

“When you apply for a job, that degree stands out,” she said. “Especially with the experience I’ve had.”

— Liza Frenette