The OSA holiday party was excellent. Five hundred and forty (540) of us attended. The food was good, the music good, the drinks on request and, best of all, the company was brilliant and wonderful.
The only bad news was that our wonderful volunteer grievance representative Sherman Gould is heading off to Florida. Sherman helped to form OSA, then spent years as our New York City Housing Authority Chapter Chairperson and activist. Once he did retire, he came on board at OSA as a volunteer grievance representative and did a fine job for his fellow OSA members.
Sherman has given OSA over 40 years of dedicated service and he will be missed.
We did, as a group, get a chance for a half a thousand of us to sing “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” and all the voices were loud and clear.
Sherman is pictured (center) at the party, along with Assistant General Counsel Nora Sullivan (far left), OSA staffer Marzie Eisenberg (to Sherman's left) and Sherman's fellow grievance rep Tommy Gorse (right), along with Tommy's wife Bea.
One housekeeping note. Staff found two sets of identical keys at Grand Prospect Hall after Thursday night's party. If you believe these are your keys, please call Diana, Lauren or Marzie at the union office at 212-686-1229.
Finally, this will be a two week newsline, since even the City gets a bit mild at this season, so please check back again next year.
If you'd like to listen to this week's newsline as an audio file, click on this link:
Happy Chanukah! Merry Christmas! And a hearty, ho-ho-ho to us all.
It is with deep regret that we have to inform you of the loss of Jim Hanley, the former Commissioner of the City's Office of Labor Relations. Jim will be waked on Sunday at the Harmon Funeral Home, 571 Forest Avenue, corner of Forest and Davis, Staten Island, 718-442-5056. the funeral mass is at St. Patrick's Church, 53 St Patrick's Place corner of Park Avenue, Staten Island. the number there is 718-351-0044.The viewing is from 2-4pm and 7-9 Sunday. The mass itself is at 11am on Monday.
We all knew Jim Hanley during the many years he served as the Commissioner in the Office of Labor Relations and he will be missed.
Last week, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and 9/11 Environmental Action co-presented a town hall forum on the two major programs serving those whose physical or mental health was impacted by the toxins released in the collapse of the World Trade Center in 2001. The World Trade Center Health Program and the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund were represented by leading staff members who outlined the programs' services and how individuals can enroll. If you worked or lived downtown on 9/11 or in the months after, you might wish to view this video of the town hall posted on Youtube:
If you'd like to listen to this week's newsline as an audio file, click on this link:
The Chief is the only newspaper that chronicles the life and times of our City’s civil service workers. Not only does The Chief act as our own “small town newspaper,” it is the only New York City media voice that is always on our side.
Editor Steier was spell-binding in his presentation. The training occurred after the membership meeting and ran later than planned. Even so, members sat happily as Richie told story after story from his life as our chronicler.
At the close of the meeting, Richie signed copies of his excellent book, “Enough Blame to Go Around.” The book had been provided to the students as a part of the ACT training program.
If you are interested in learning how to be an effective union activist, call John LaGuardia at the union office and volunteer.
If you'd like to listen to this week's newsline as an audio file, click on this link:
At our Activist Classroom Training last Thursday, we were privileged to share the evening with Richie Steier, editor of the civil service newspaper, The Chief.