GOLDSTEIN RECOMMENDED
AS NEW GUILD MANAGER

Search Committee Sees Former Nurses' Union Official Becoming Local Representative Eventually

By John F. Bonfatti
Editor

The Search Committee empowered to seek a replacement for local service representative Tina Destro has recommended former nurses' union official Carol A. Goldstein.

The committee will ask the BNG-CWA Local 31026 membership to vote on that recommendation at the monthly meeting, to be held Jan. 25 at the union office at 120 Delaware Avenue.

Goldstein, 49, of Williamsville, would be

hired initially as the Guild office manager, but is expected to take over the duties of local service representative within the year.

"We liked her because she's got a tremendous amount of energy," said Kevin Collison, who served on both this search committee and the search committee that led to Destro being named local service representative last year. "She seems to have a great labor background and a strong, positive, no-nonsense attitude."

Goldstein was a finalist for the position last year. "What became clear is how well the last search committee did its job," union president Bob DiCesare said, adding that he sees Goldstein as "the best fit for our union and the direction we see ourselves headed."

A graduate of Cornell's Labor Studies program, Goldstein's union involvement started when she worked as a registered nurse at Bry-Lin Hospital in 1986. "They formed a union when I was there and the union asked me to work for them," she said.

Working as business representative for the professional division of AFL-CIO Hospital and Nursing Home Council, Local 168-39, Goldstein represented as many as 1,500 members in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse.

She left that position in 1996 to take a similar position with AFL-CIO Laundry and Dry Cleaning International Union Local 168-39, where she has represented about 500 members.

"She has shown that she can work with a diverse membership," said Dick Fay, who was on the search committee along with Collison, DiCesare, Donna Ryan, Carol Ann Burke, Bob Snyder, Pat Gormley and Jay Bonfatti.

Her years of union activity have convinced Goldstein of the need for unions, she said. "I think fair employers are unbelievably few and far between."

Goldstein said her biggest strength is that she is "very comfortable working with everybody from attorneys to presidents of companies. They don't intimidate me at all."

She added, "If I can work with nurses, I can work with newspaper people."

Goldstein's annual salary will be $41,000, minus the two weeks of unpaid vacation she requested in addition to the two weeks of paid vacation the union will give her.

If approved by the membership, Goldstein would start in the job by the end of January. She said she is eager to grow into a bigger role with the union: "I'll move into that as quickly as I can."