There are no details yet on services to be held for our greatly missed brother and coworker Tim Collins. Those details will be on our hotline as soon as they are arranged. Our union will be in mourning for this entire week.

Reports on Saturday's Administrative Analyst exam are incomplete, but an overall impression has been formed. There were fewer problems with administration on this occasion than occurred in the earlier exams on May 30th. In fact, the major complaint was that the exam was too long for the time allocated. If so, that could tend to affect all test takers alike.

We are awaiting a response from the City on our contract negotiations. A mailing is due out to the members this week and it will discuss those negotiations and both the recent and upcoming exams.The contents are already up on this website as the June 2015 edition of News From OSA.

We had some very good news from the UFT this week. As members may recall we have been working to assist the United Federation of Teachers in their efforts to cover more analysts for collective bargaining purposes. A couple of years back, those efforts paid off with a large increase in the numbers of Education Analysts and Officers being represented by that union.

Now, the Department of Education has conceded even larger numbers of analysts the right to be covered by the UFT. As of August, due to an action brought before the Public Employee Relations Board, the DOE will grant representation rights to a further 300 analysts at Administrative levels G-I through G-IV. This is good news for the employees newly covered for due process and additional paid leave days.

The labor heroes responsible for this mayor victory start with the Howie Schoor, Eileen Weinerman and Emma Mendez of the UFT. They were, however, assisted by our OSA team of Michael Daflos, Michael Falzarano and John Harper. Thus we too can take pride in this decision. It took years to accomplish, but finally we won.

For those being tested this weekend, best of luck and we hope to see you there.

There are three items this week.

First, Katie Guarino, who has worked for our union since she graduated college, has now left the union to be appointed off the list to the position of Associate Staff Analyst. She will be missed by members and staff alike. She was presented with a small gift by the OSA Retirees Club for her services willingly rendered to our retirees.

Her new replacement is John LaGuardia. John's comment on Katie’s retirement was that he could not easily fill her job, but he would try.

Next, there was a well-attended meeting at the Department of Environmental Protection last week. Many members in attendance were clearly inpatient for the collective bargaining process to conclude. This impatience is entirely shared by the union leadership and we are also hoping for a quick resolution.

Finally. our union was contacted by Emma Wolfe, Deputy Mayor and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. She has agreed to meet with us, but cannot do so until she is free of her current work in Albany. She promised a meeting sometime after next week.

Our union is processing complaints on last week’s exam and will, with luck, get the results out to the members in a letter before the next series later this month.

We also remind those who already took one or more exams to send us a copy of their answer sheets. We need at least a few hundred of each exam to do a valid item analysis.

The first of a series of reports on our grievance victories for 2015 is completed and will be sent out to the members in the mail.

Thanks to David Berger and Rob Spencer for producing the report and, of course to our grievance Reps and lawyers for winning the victories.

The City had not yet rescheduled the negotiation session they cancelled, so there is no news on that front. At least one more agency commissioner signed on to the idea of a compressed work schedule last week, so it seems that once the City does agree, implementation will be wide spread.

It was an exciting day on Saturday. Thousands of our members took one or more exams. Staff, Associate and Education Analyst exams were offered, open-competitive and promotional as well.

The staff designing and running this complex operation at six city high schools did well although, as always, there were some problems.

On the plus side, a single exam was used and candidates completed from 80 to 100 questions, depending upon how many exams the candidates had filed for. Years gone by, our members on occasion, had to sit for two or even three exams on a single day. In the most extreme case, it was a 15 hour ordeal. On this occasion, it was less onerous.

On the downside, the exam itself did not start on time at some schools and it was definitely a very long exam. Worse yet, at 49th Street there was a serious shortage of bathrooms available and lines were reported. We will hope that such difficulties are overcome for the upcoming Administrative Staff Analyst exam later this month.

We compliment our brothers and sisters of DCAS for their efforts and remind candidates to send us their answer sheets so we can do a quick item analysis.

Thanks are also due to those activists and officers of our union who arrived early in the AM and stayed late into the PM to show support for the test takers and to hand out those helpful green pencil cases.

Also, while there were no negotiations scheduled by OLR last week, Gladys Carrion, Commissioner of the Agency for Children’s Services responded with enthusiasm to OSA’s request for a voluntary four day work week for any analyst for whom such a schedule is practicable.

A second meeting last week with another agency resulted in expressions of support for our goals, but a request that we not publicly announce their willingness until they check with City Hall.

Now that’s fair, since we are also planning on checking with City Hall – because negotiations have gone on for long enough.

Finally on Friday, Letitia James, the Public Advocate – and the second highest ranking officer of New York City – attended the Agency for Children’s Services award ceremony for 25 year veterans of that agency.

Before the event began, she sat with OSA representatives and discussed our contract goals. She was pleased by our demands and asked for a meeting to work out how she could assist us.

All of these contacts outside the bargaining table seem to be both favorable and likely to help us in speeding up a conclusion to our negotiations.