Paula Mikles has worked for the state of Indiana for 17 years. Like many government employees across the nation, she has accrued vacation and sick leave over the years--saving it for that unthinkable family emergency. For Mikles, a member of the Unity Team, an affiliate of AFT Public Employees, that leave time was a safety net.

In recent years, Mikles, a clerical worker at the Putnamville Correctional Facility in Greencastle, has needed that safety net. Two years ago her 30-year-old daughter Kathy was diagnosed with rapid non-remitting multiple sclerosis. Her daughter cannot drive, frequently falls and needs a high level of care. Since Kathy's diagnosis, Mikles cumulatively has used about four weeks of leave to help her daughter and her daughter's husband. "It is not a disease that affects one person," she notes. "It affects the entire family."

But Mikles' safety net was threatened when officials at Indiana's Department of Personnel proposed converting employees' unused vacation and sick leave in excess of eight weeks to a tax-deferred savings plan.  Moreover, the state valued the affected unused leave at 60 percent its value.

Mikles was ready to fight back. She was one of dozens of  employees who spoke against the proposal during a July 31 public hearing in Indianapolis.

"I've got to have those [leave] days," says Mikles. "I've got to be there. When Kathy is having a bad day, I have to be there and say, 'I love you.'"

Nearly 1,000 state employees packed the State Office Building to show their collective opposition to the plan. The political effect of the mass turnout was soon evident: Two weeks later, the state shelved the plan.

"The solidarity of the membership spoke very loudly with the state," says Fuzz Lemay, president of the Unity Team, who noted that more than 100 state employees joined the Unity Team after it launched its campaign against the state's proposal. "Anytime you are dealing with a state agency, we have to have total solidarity for them to listen. It behooves everybody to belong to the union, because if we are fragmented, the state simply is not going to listen to us."