It’s not just politicians who are changing offices in this post-election season.

When the legislature convenes again next month, expect to see a few new faces from those who lobby our state’s leaders.

A few examples:

After 16 years as president of the Rhode Island Alliance of Social Service Employees, Local 580, Nancy R. Reed did not run for reelection this year, clearing the way for the recent election of Lucie Burdick as the new president, starting next month, of what is familiarly known to many as the social workers union.

A $60,239-a-year clinical training specialist in the state Department of Human Services, Burdick has been a state worker since 1984. She did not respond to inquiries.

Burdick succeeds one of the most familiar faces at the State House during legislative sessions, especially during the weeks-long countdown to the final House and Senate budget votes.

Retired from state government three years ago with what is now a $5,758 monthly pension, Reed began her career with the state 35 years ago as a case worker dealing with abused and neglected children.

A strike a few weeks after she began the job thrust her into the labor-conflict arena almost immediately. She recalls her administrator at the time warning her that she would be putting her job in jeopardy if she joined the walkout but she did so anyway and now proudly bills herself as both the longest-serving and first female president of her union, with 26 years in the union-leadership ranks.

Along the way, she helped win what she calls a precedent-setting no-layoff provision in her union’s contract which has, not unexpectedly, emerged as one of issues in the “contentious contract negotiations with this administration.” Local 580 remains one of the handful of state unions with a lapsed contract.

“I would not sign a [new] contract without the current no-layoff provisions continuing, full staff at DCYF [the Department of Children, Youth and Families] and maintaining regular work hours for our members, so there are some heavy challenges” for her successor, Reed said.

In the summer of 2002, Reed took a leave from her post as chief casework supervisor for the DHS food stamp program to work as U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s $70,000-a-year campaign field director. As Local 580 president, she had a seat on the Rhode Island AFL-CIO executive committee.

She was elected in 1996 and 2000 as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, worked on numerous presidential and gubernatorial campaigns and at one point flirted with the idea of running for state office, but never took the plunge. In an interview last week, Reed said, she felt it was “time to move on” and is exploring opportunities.

Local 580 of the Service Employees International Union has more than 1,100 members sprinkled across state government in DHS, Library Services, the Public Utilities Commission and the departments of Children, Youth and Families; Business Regulation; Labor and Training, and Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals.

Next. …

Marti Rosenberg, longtime executive director of the advocacy group Ocean State Action, will be leaving at the end of the year.

Karen Malcolm, who has been the group’s associate director for the last four years, will take over as the new executive director.

Rosenberg will start a new job in January as the development director for USAction, a national organization based in Washington that fights for “justice in health care, education, environmental policy and other areas.” Ocean State Action is an affiliate. Rosenberg will be based in Rhode Island.

Ocean State Action will roast Rosenberg at a benefit dinner Jan. 25 at the Roger Williams Park Casino. The co-hosts are Robert A. Walsh Jr., executive director of National Education Association/Rhode Island and Kate Coyne-McCoy, a former congressional candidate, labor leader and staffer for Emily’s List, which raises money for Democratic female candidates who support abortion rights.

By Katherine Gregg, Scott Mayerowitz, Elizabeth Gudrais and Scott MacKay

Journal Staff Writers