News From OSA - November, 2018

GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING ... Thanksgiving falls on November 22nd this year, so our next general membership meeting could be set for November 15th or 29th, but the 29th is already spoken for. We have a number of fraternal organizations choosing the 29th for their yearly meetings/fundraising events and that creates a conflict. One of these groups is the New York Labor History Association (NYLHA) and they have their only fundraising event that night. They issue the “Commerford” award to key New York City labor activists at that meeting. OSA has provided meeting space to NYLHA for the past two decades.They are a worthy organization.

That means our November meeting will be held on Thursday, November 15th. On the agenda will be nominations for the OSA and OSART Executive Boards, as well as the normal reports of new and old union business. The meeting will be held, as usual, in the union office and will start at 6pm sharp. It will be followed by food and then the latest session of our Activists Classroom Training.

A flyer can be downloaded at this link to remind you of the date, time and location.

NEGOTIATIONS ... As we sent this letter to our mailing house in late October, negotiations had not yet started for OSA, although the DC37 pattern was settled before July. The United Federation of Teachers has also concluded its contract as of early October, so clearly the City is going forward with negotiations.

It is also true that OSA signaled its willingness to negotiate as far back as the end of June. Since September, we have begun to nag Labor Relations to get started. However, as you can see from the list provided by the Policy Research Group you can download here, we are not alone. There are dozens of unions still awaiting bargaining.

We do expect to start this fall. Shortly before this letter went to the printer, we heard from the Office of Labor Relations that they might have a date for us by the end of October. We would love to be done before Christmas, but two facts need to be kept in mind. First, never be in such a hurry as to give the opposition the opportunity to give you less than is due. Second, the raises are always retroactive and no money is lost.

THE ALTERNATE WORK SCHEDULE(AWS) ... The pilot project on the nine-day biweekly work schedule (7.75 hour work day) at the Human Resources Administration is now completed. Over 400 of our members were offered the opportunity for a compressed work week six months ago. Early reports are very positive.

As of this writing, HRA has not issued its final report, but that should occur before the membership meeting. If all goes as well as we have been hearing, the program will be offered to all OSA members at HRA and we will move on to more agencies.

Dr. Mitchell Katz of the Hospitals Corporation, for one, has already shown some interest in this morale-boosting improvement in workday options.

CAMPAIGNS ... We are in the middle of the campaign for Patient Representatives. We have already won them the right to belong to a union. Now, we are hoping that they will choose our union to be their own. The decision will be made by November 9th.

We are also involved in fighting for union rights for the Assistant and Associate Directors of Hospitals, the Health Services Managers and the Administrative Nurses.

The Nurses campaign saw a partial victory this year in that the Hospitals Corporation agreed that those nurses employed at Metroplus are eligible for unionization, but we are still awaiting an election. Assistant and Associate Directors of Nursing outside of Metroplus are still being claimed as managerial by the Hospitals Corporation. Meanwhile, more than 30% of them have signed OSA union designation cards, so we should succeed here as well.

WELFARE FUND IMPROVEMENT... Recently, some complaints were received about slow reimbursement for hearing aids. The trustees looked into the complaint and learned that reimbursement was being delayed until the devices had been finally adjusted and that the process can take six months. The Trustees felt the delay to be unreasonable and have instructed our service providers to expedite reimbursement. They are to let us know if this causes any problems, but otherwise the reimbursement time should be cut by two thirds to less than two months from start to finish.

NON-MEMBERS ... As expected, OSA lost a number of Agency Shop Fee payers due to the Supreme Court decision in Janus v. AFSCME. Some Agency Shop Fee payers only became aware of the situation when their union deduction dropped off their pay check and these individuals then sent signed membership cards to the union.

However, a number of members, upon discovery of the chance to get something for nothing, chose to drop out of the union. So, over all, thus far, we did lose a few hundred and retained the support of over four thousand voluntary members.

This was far from the overwhelming collapse of the union movement predicted by our anti-union enemies who financed the effort to destroy us. Even so, it does lower our resources somewhat, and worse yet, drives a wedge between those of us willing to support our union and those who will leave that job to the rest of us.

HOLIDAY PARTY ... At first, our holiday party was held at the OSA headquarters and was very nice. Then, as years passed, the party grew too large for our office and we had to rent a space. Then, the party grew larger and larger and many non-members began to attend.

Finally, the union put a price of $25 on a ticket. The charging of a price not only reduced the cost to the union for the party, it also caused attendance by non-connected individuals to drop off.

This year's party will be held at our favorite palace, Grand Prospect Hall in Brooklyn, and the cost will not increase at all, for members.

Non-members, however, will not be sold tickets at the normal price. The price for a non-member will be increased appropriately.

Members, spouses/partners and their guests are very welcome at the regular price, retired members and their spouses/partners for even less.

This year, we should have a better time than ever before since we will be surrounded by our voluntary union family.

If you are a union member, to order tickets to the holiday party, please use the form you can download below. (Retirees should use the form they will receive in the mail.) Complete it and mail it back to the union office with your payment. We look forward to seeing you there.

Holiday Party Announcement For OSA Members

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