OSA Newsline - July 27, 1998 Members are due to receive their July 1st raise in the August 7th pay check. If all goes well the three percent will arrive on that date, along with thirteen days of retroactive pay for most members and seventy-eight days worth for our Board of Education members. A mailing is due out this week and we hope will reach you before the raise does. The mailing gives instructions on how to check the City's figures and what to do if the City's numbers are wrong. Also enclosed, you will find information on our Welfare Fund's increased levels of benefits. There is also information on a vigil OSA will be sponsoring this September. The vigil will be on behalf of WEP workers, will involve other organizations. It will conclude on the day of the Labor Day Parade, September 12th and will be followed by the parade itself. OSA Newsline - July 13, 1998 Members may already be aware that OSA was having a problem getting the City to pay us the raise due for 1998. The Coalition settlement required that all monetary demands be resolved before the 1998 raise would be paid. Since OSA had questioned the numbers presented by the City, our 3 percent was being held hostage. No longer. As of two weeks ago the City presented new figures and as of last week our bargaining team agreed to sign the release that would lead to payment of the 3 percent. Details will be sent in the mail, but the value, to us, of the correction, was about one fifth of a million. A nickel here, a nickel there. It adds up. Members should receive the 3 percent increase with retroactivity by August or as soon as the City can effect payment