OSA Newsline - August 27, 2001 The sad news this week was the loss of Bea Keshner, OSA activist from the Police Department. Bea was a major source of help in the founding of our union and will be missed by a great many of us. The funeral will be private and for the family only, but a memorial will follow The good news is that as of early September, the Office of Collective Bargaining will be adding 46 new members to OSA. These new members in the top levels of the School Security and Traffic Enforcement titles of the Police Department had petitioned to join OSA earlier this year. We were pleased to assist them, and OSA attorney Joan Kiok won the case on their behalf last week. The continuing news is that negotiations went well last week, both at Transit and with the City. Slowly, but well. We'll see each other at the Labor Day Parade. The OSA assembly point is the Southeast corner of 44th Street and Sixth Avenue at 11am sharp on Saturday, September 8th. See you there. OSA Newsline - August 20, 2001 The union was surprised by the City last week. They actually have some responses ready to our contract demands. We had begun to suspect that we would get no answers until September, but were pleased to find out that the City would be able to respond on August 23rd. Good - anything that speeds up this process is a big help. We'll be there. OSA Newsline - August 13, 2001 The City negotiators have indicated that they are not yet ready to respond to the demands submitted by our union. As a result, it looks unlikely that there will be further bargaining sessions this summer. Meanwhile, PICA card negotiations relating to the payment of the $125 due to us will still be going on over the next couple of weeks. OSA Newsline - August 6, 2001 There were no contract talks last week since the union is awaiting the City's response to our demands. There are two mailings due out late this week. One is specific to the Transit Authority and the other is for the general membership. The large bulk rate summer mailing is also nearing completion.