The Times Union (Albany, New York), January 29, 2006, Sunday

Copyright 2006 The Hearst Corporation
The Times Union (Albany, New York)

January 29, 2006 Sunday
3 EDITION

SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. E1

HEADLINE: STEPPING STONES

BODY:
Name: Nancy E. Hoffman
Age: 61
Title: General counsel
Company: CSEA, Local 1000, AFSCME
Watershed: Hoffman's career choice was sparked by her father, Jack Hoffman, a furniture manufacturer whose striking union workers prevented him from filling several orders.
He settled one strike by offering workers their birthdays off instead of an annual plant-closing day that celebrated the company's founder.
His experiences, and her introduction to a female labor relations attorney, led her to Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
Today, she oversees delivery of legal services to union members for matters both on and off the job.
Quote: "My father's conversation was about labor and management, and my personal experiences growing up in the '60s was about race and gender relations. It was all about relationships that have to go on beyond the dispute."
- Betsy Feldstein

GRAPHIC: Photo
MICHAEL P. FARRELL/TIMES UNION NANCY E. HOFFMAN, general counsel for CSEA, Local 1000 of AFSCME, works in her Albany office. A strike at her father's furniture manufacturing firm prompted her to study labor law.