Member Profile: Stephen Ferrara
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- Published: April 16, 2015
Stephen Ferrara, a PASS Chapter NG3 member for the last three years, serves as an aviation safety inspector (ASI) of General Aviation operationsand PASS representative for the Farmingdale Flight Standards District Office (FSDO). Under his current title, Ferrara certifies and has oversight over office part 135 operators, part 141 operators and part 61/91 operators.
Not only is Ferrara an active member of PASS, but he was also an active member with both the Patrolman’s Benevolent Association (PBA) and the Detectives Endowment Association (DEA) with the New York City Police Department. He has many years of experience with unions and previous experience with employee assistance with the NYPD.
“I have always been a proud supporter of any union I have been involved with,” said Ferrara. “I believe the union and, more importantly, member involvement is critical to union success and bargaining unit employee success. The union is here to protect employees in every area and it’s very clear from past management performance that the union is essential.”
When asked about collaboration, Ferrara admits that it “goes both ways.” He added, “Management does a good job involving the union when an office procedure or change has an affect on the employee.” As a recent example, he and the Eastern region regional business agent (RBA) worked successfully to defend a probationary bargaining unit employee against possible termination. Ferrara was happy to say that the employee had full support of the union during the investigation.
As members hopefully know, PASS recently announced members who will serving as Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) peer debriefers, and Ferrara was selected as a national coordinator for Aviation Safety (AVS). When asked what made him volunteer in the first place, he replied, “Providing assistance to people in need should be an important part of any union’s backbone and it is important to me. I have prior experience with employee intervention from past work in the NYPD. The CISD program is new to the agency and I hope it will be successful. believe the union completed an exhaustive search for volunteers and have been told that the other CISD members bring a tremendous amount of talent to the table.”