The New York Times, December 14, 2005, Wednesday

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
The New York Times

December 14, 2005 Wednesday
Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section C; Column 1; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 17

HEADLINE: Harold Newman, 84; Led Public Employees Board

BYLINE: By WOLFGANG SAXON

BODY:
Harold Raymond Newman, former chairman of Public Employment Relations Board of New York State and a behind-the-scenes catalyst in many labor negotiations with public employees, died on Nov. 25 in West Palm Beach, Fla. A resident of Lake Worth, Fla., he was 84 and formerly lived in Albany.
His death was announced by the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, with which he had a long professional association.
A former union organizer and officer in Washington and New York, Mr. Newman joined the Public Employment Relations Board in Albany when it was established in 1967. The board was an outgrowth of a series of labor disputes involving public employees, the most prominent being the 12-day transit strike in New York City the year before.
The Taylor Law forbade strikes by public employees and set up the board to resolve disputes through mediation, fact-finding and arbitration. Mr. Newman was named director of the board's office of conciliation in 1968.
He became a man in the middle of various disagreements and work stoppages, real and threatened, by teachers and others statewide. That included disputes involving the United Federation of Teachers, which struck in New York City in 1975, and the Transport Workers Union in 1980.
Gov. Hugh L. Carey chose Mr. Newman as chairman of the board in 1977. He retired in 1990.
A native New Yorker, Harold Newman attended Brooklyn College and the New School for Social Research. He served in the Army Air Corps in Europe in World War II, reaching the rank of master sergeant. After the war, he prepared training programs for poor young people in Brooklyn for the State Department of Labor.
In 1952, he joined the staff of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and later became a vice president in the organization. From 1962 until his return to public service in Albany, he was a partner in a public relations firm with union ties.
Mr. Newman is survived by his wife of 35 years, Rita Lapid Newman, and a brother, Paul, of Walnut Creek, Calif.

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