The Times Union (Albany, New York), December 14, 2005, Wednesday

Copyright 2005 The Hearst Corporation
The Times Union (Albany, New York)

December 14, 2005 Wednesday
3 EDITION

SECTION: CAPITAL REGION; Pg. B10

HEADLINE: Harold R. Newman, labor leader

BYLINE: By JAMES M. ODATO Capitol bureau

BODY:
ALBANY Former Public Employment Relations Board Chairman Harold R. Newman, a leader in the labor movement and crusader for civil rights, died in Lake Worth, Fla., his widow said Tuesday. He was 84.
Newman, who previously lived on Marion Avenue in Albany, died after a short illness Nov. 25 at John F. Kennedy Medical Center, said Rita Newman.
Labor relations professionals credit Newman with a large role in the evolution of state government's collective bargaining laws. Professor David B. Lipsky, former dean of Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, called him "the architect of public-sector labor relations in New York."
Newman - who never attended college, and joined the armed forces after graduating from Erasmus High School in Brooklyn - was a lecturer at the ILR school over three decades.
In 1967, after public sector work stoppages, including a devastating 12-day transit strike in New York City, the Legislature and Gov. Nelson Rockefeller created the Taylor Law, which established the PERB and gave public employees bargaining rights.
As the board's first New York City director, and later as the first statewide director of conciliation, Newman helped resolve more than 800 public-sector bargaining impasses a year, according to Gordon Law, the ILR school's library director. The disputes included the bitter 1975 strike against the New York City Board of Education by Albert Shanker's United Federation of Teachers.
Newman was PERB's chairman for 13 years. He retired in 1990.
Richard A. Curreri, the board's director of conciliation, said Newman was one of the most sought-after speakers in the field, and spoke throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and Latin America. He helped fledgling labor boards in other states and at the federal level.
Early in his career, Newman led labor groups and crusaded for civil rights. In 1938, he was an organizer for District 50 of the United Mine Workers. He later worked for the United Office & Professional Workers Association.
As an Army Air Force corporal during World War II, he championed integration in the military. As a master sergeant in Germany, he established a rehabilitation program for concentration camp survivors. He briefly served with the state Commission for Human Rights.
At the state Department of Labor, he devised training programs to enable minority youngsters in New York City's Bedford-Stuyvesant and Williamsburg-Greenpoint neighborhoods to develop office skills.
In 1958, he founded Local 1412 of the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, serving as vice president of both the local and its parent organization, New York State Employees Council 50.
Besides his wife of 35 years, survivors include a brother, Paul Newman of Walnut Creek, Calif.; a cousin; and many nieces and nephews. He preferred no memorial service.
James M. Odato can be reached at 454-5083 or by e-mail at jodato@timesunion.com.