This is a two week newsline due to the holidays.

A truly nice holiday party was held last week and nearly 500 members and guests were in attendance. Food was good. Drinks were good and friends of the union were superb. We must do that again next year. (Photos will be up in the Photo Gallery section of this website soon. Keep an eye out.)

One last victory was our final holiday present for 2018. The Office of Collective Bargaining has ruled in our favor on a few titles.

We now represent the Directors and Deputy Directors of Tenant and Community Affiars. Director and Deputy Director of Social and Community Affairs and the Assistant Director of Intergroup Relations, all at the New York City Housing Authority.

The total number of new members at present is six, so the victory was not numerically large. Nonetheless, even one person gaining due process, paid overtime and the right to grieve, is a wonderful victory, so we are happy.

And, so should we all be. A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Finally, a postscript. The NYPD Office of Equity and Inclusion is looking for a Staff Analyst at the moment. They assure us the job is real.The position is open to candidates who are permanent staff analysts or reachable on the civil service list. (Indicate this info in your cover letter.)

The job id is 365767.

Here's how they describe the job. "The mission of the New York City Police Department is to enhance the quality of life in New York City by working in partnership with the community to enforce the law, preserve peace, protect the people, reduce fear, and maintain order. The NYPD strives to foster a safe and fair city by incorporating Neighborhood Policing into all facets of Department operations, and solve the problems that create crime and disorder through an interdependent relationship between the people and its police, and by pioneering strategic innovation."

"The Reasonable Accommodations Unit is responsible for responding to and assisting all employees with any request for reasonable accommodations in accordance with federal, state, and local laws. Personnel assigned to the Reasonable Accommodations Unit perform duty in business attire, Monday through Friday, between 0700 and 1800 hours. Saturday and Sunday are regular days off.

"The Staff Analyst will primarily be responsible for assisting the NYPD Reasonable Accommodation Team in the capacity of acting as a Reasonable Accommodation Specialist, being responsible for addressing and responding to all employee requests for reasonable accommodations in accordance with federal, state and local laws"

"Preferred Skills: Applicants should possess positive service and sick records. In addition, applicants should have strong verbal and written communications skills."

"In compliance with Federal Law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification document form upon hire."

"This position is open to qualified persons with a disability who are eligible for the 55-a Program. Please indicate in your cover letter that you would like to be considered for the position under the 55-a Program."

How do you apply? Send a cover letter and resume to Lisa Atkinson, Equal Emploment Opportunity Division, NY Police Department, One Police Plaza NY NY 10038 or email her at LISA.ATKINSON@nypd.org. You can also fax her at (646) 610-5898.

If you'd like to listen to this week's newsline as an audio file, click on this link:

AUDIO December 17, 2018

Two victories and some jobs this week.

A long awaited victory is now finally happening at the Health Department. Over one hundred Health Services Managers will now be covered for union rights and job security by the Organization of Staff Analysts. This effort has taken OSA over five years and is the result of a number of HSM’s asking us to become involved about one year earlier than that. It takes a long time to get workers their rights, but we keep on working at it until it happens. Mail will be going out to our newly covered brothers and sisters and meetings will be scheduled.

A second win that occurred just now affects our Transit Authority members. After long discussion, our members will now benefit from time and a half overtime in certain circumstances. If a member works the full 35 hours in a week, adds five more hours at straight time, then each hour after 40 is at time and a half. Actually, we began asking for that many contracts back, even though most of our members do not work a lot of overtime. Anyway, it took a while, but now we do have it and it will be in force right away as a sort of joint Hannukah/Christmas present. Compensation will be made in compensatory time until you accrue 160 hours of compensatory time, after which you can be compensated in cash.

The jobs that are available are as follows.

First, if you are a permanent Staff Analyst, the Department of Transportation may want you. They need a Staff Analyst Level 2, so check out the flyer you can reach at the link below:

Staff Analyst Level II - DOT

Current City Employees should log into Employee Self Service (ESS) at https://hrb.nycaps.nycnet, follow the Careers link and search for Job ID number 368496.

Also, the Administration for Children’s Services needs an Executive Director of Competitive Solicitations. You have to be a permanent Administrative Staff Analyst already, but we assume, your acceptance for the position should result in a few dollars more.

Details are in the flyer at the link below:

Executive Director, Competitive Solicitations

Email your letter of inquiry, noting your permanent civil service title, the job title and job ID number to careersatacs@acs.nyc.gov.

Check back again next week and see if we have any more victories.

If you'd like to listen to this week's newsline as an audio file, click on this link:

AUDIO December 10, 2018

The Municipal Labor Committee heard last week from Assemblymember Richard Gottfried and State Senator Gustavo Rivera on the topic of New York State single payer healthcare.

The concept is most attractive: coverage for all, paid for through progressive taxation, a reduction in the overwhelming administrative costs inherent in the present system and all the other good parts, but the problem lies in the details.

We would be throwing out the current system entirely and hoping the new system works.

At present, 95% of New Yorkers are covered for healthcare, thanks in part to Obamacare. The five percent left uncovered is a problem we should all want to correct.

We are not likely to want to worsen or risk our own current healthcare in order to solve that problem and there should be a safer way to proceed.

Mr. Gottfried assured us there would be no loss or added cost or risk under his plan, but most labor leaders were doubtful.

We applaud the bill’s sponsors for their good intentions, but the proposed changes are quite dramatic and we can too easily imagine unintended consequences that would hurt our members.

If the result of these efforts was to result in a less radical change in our health care system it probably would be more acceptable to most of us.

In any case, the bill has to go through Albany and, if and when it gets to a vote, it will probably look very different from its current version.

A second meeting of the MLC this week brought more concrete results. DCAS has committed to a pilot project using carefully chosen job titles. The pilot will mandate use of the agency promotional lists on a citywide basis before recourse to the open competitive lists for the same title.

That may sound uninteresting to you until the day you find yourself frozen on an agency promotional list while other agencies hire from the open competitive list.

On that day, you will understand why the civil service unions have fought very hard and long for this change in practice.

We seem to be winning on this issue and that makes us very happy.

DCAS also reaffirmed that all candidates should at least be interviewed before being passed over for promotion. Some agencies have not been following the rules and DCAS asked the unions to let them know every time an agency skips the interview. That’s good too.

If you'd like to listen to this week's newsline as an audio file, click on this link:

AUDIO December 3, 2018