By the close of business Thursday, a total of 1348 ballots had arrived on the issue of the one year extension of the main contract. Of these, three were blank and ten were challenged, either due to multiple ballots within a single envelope or an improper envelope.

Of the 1335 ballots counted, 1307 voted yes and 28 voted no. The decision to accept thus came in at a bit less than 98% in favor.

Now comes the hard part, getting the City to pay quickly.

There are still a number of other outstanding contracts left to be negotiated – the TA, the one percent, the uniformed forces and so forth, but at least this one appears to have gone through quickly.

Mail will go out next week giving the results in print and also making a pitch for contributions on behalf of the transport workers and their union.

That's all the news for 2005. Check back again next year.

The OSA leadership stood with the rest of the municipal union leadership in support of the Transport Workers Union last week, both at the rally before the strike and the press conference during the strike.

The pension issue, improperly raised by the MTA just before the strike deadline, has now been taken off the table. The buses and trains, as a result, are again serving our city 24 hours a day.

The TWU fight was our fight, thus a victory our victory. OSA will be asking you to financially help our brothers and sisters in Transit during the new year and we will ask all to give generously at that time.

Enjoy the holidays.

Pattern bargaining can lead to strange developments. We have not yet concluded bargaining on the one percent for the City and our TA members. We have not yet begun bargaining on our Traffic Enforcement and School Safety members' contract. In spite of that, OSA began bargaining for a raise for the current year as of last week, due to the fact that the UFT contract had set a pattern for 2005-6.

Bargaining began and ended the same day.

A vote will be going out to City analysts this week. The offer is for a one year extension of our contract plus 12 days in return for a 3.25% raise for the period 7/1/05 through 7/13/06.

The negotiating team has recommended a yes vote since, although the raise is not generous, at least there are no give backs this time. We will continue with our other negotiations on the TA and uniformed forces and one percent issues.

Members must vote quickly since counting will be at the union office on December 29th. In other words, if you delay mailing your vote back it probably won't get to us in time.

The only other news is the transit strike on the private bus lines and that we will, of course, support the Transport Workers Union in their time of need.

Within the next week or so, you will be receiving a request to cast your vote on our contract. Vote? Our contract?

Yes. In a very strange year for contracts, OSA will be voting on an extension of our current contract. That contract, from July 1, 2002 through June 30, 2005, has obviously expired. The contract extension will add 12 months and 12 days to the existing contract.

This will not impact on our right to the one percent we are still due under the contract.

The UFT settlement conformed, sort of, to the existing pattern, but included 3.25% extra in return for the extra one year and twelve days. We brought this variation on our contract to the bargaining table. The City has now agreed to follow the UFT pattern for our contract period July 1, 2005 through July 12, 2006.

The vote, to extend our contract in return for the 3.25% increase, will be in the mail this week.

See you at the holiday party tonight.

A brief update this time. There is an MLC meeting on Tuesday and our own negotiations later this week.

But, there is also our Holiday Party at the Crystal Palace this Thursday. Remember, it's the Broadway stop on the BMT "N" train. Even if there is a transit strike, and we hope this will not be necessary, we will still all be home before it starts.

The topic of most interest today is the negotiations. Some members in our uniformed School Safety and Traffic Enforcement divisions are now starting negotiations for the prior contract. In their case, the union had to wait for the results of the UFT negotiations.

Other members in the Transit Authority will be pleased that DC37 has now concluded negotiations on the one percent left over from the old contract.

The rest of us are awaiting developments on the one percent due to us while we proceed to seek a contract extension of one year worth 3.15% more. This last bit is due to the pattern set by the fourth year of the UFT contract.

The union will be very busy on these negotiations for a while yet, so members must be patient. All news related to these negotiations will be announced first on this newsline, so.members calling to inquire what is happening on the negotiations will be referred to the newsline. One of our goals in keeping up-to-date news on the newsline is to keep the union phone line free for grievance and/or welfare fund calls.