There is good news this week. First, don’t forget to mail in your coupon if you are planning to attend the OSA holiday party on December 8th.

It is getting late, so you may not receive the tickets in the mail, but not to worry. If you mail the coupon in, your name will be on the list at the door.

Now, the good news.

OSA’s Executive Director Sheila Gorsky had written to Commissioner Handy, head of DCAS, inquiring about the various exams that were taken last year. Commissioner Handy has responded with welcome news.

The personnel branch of DCAS expects the lists to be published this December. For those unfamiliar with the process, it goes as follows:

First, lists are published and candidates learn how they have done. Percentage grades translate to places on the lists for hiring and list placement is important.

Then, a couple of months later, certification lists are mailed out to agencies that have vacancies in the different titles. First come the promotion lists and those lists are by agency. Once your agency has a certification list, the agency will hold a pool and will invite you to attend if your name appears on the list.

As soon as a number of agencies exhaust their promotion lists, DCAS will send out certification lists from the open competitive exam. It is expected that DCAS will hold a citywide hiring pool at that time.

This is good news and means that in 2012, many analysts will achieve permanent status in title.

First, best wishes to you and your family for a Happy Thanksgiving from the officers, board and staff of your union.

The big news this week is our recent mailing. Thousands of envelopes went out to active employees with incorrect first names. Retirees and other folks on our mailing list were not affected by the glitch.

That did lead to some phone calls instructing us that John had not changed his name to Mortimer. It also led to some phone calls telling us that Robert had not become Margaret nor vice-versa.

There was an error in extracting the names from our database for the mailing and only the first names lost their moorings. Okay. Most letters did arrive at the proper place because the last name and the address and zip code were correct. Unfortunately, some letters may well have gone wrong, so we are sending the mailing out again, with an apology, to those members whose envelopes had the erroneous first names.

If you received the letter when it went out the first time, even so, open it because this time we did include the directions to our holiday party. You can also download the directions by clicking this link.

John Liu, City Comptroller, did come to our membership meeting. He discussed the proposed change in our pension investing system and was most informative. The matter will be discussed further at an upcoming Municipal Labor Committee meeting, so more later.

A slide show with some photos taken by Rob Spencer at the general membership meeting can be accessed below.

Finally, the New York City Central Labor Council is organizing a mass march for jobs and economic fairness on Thursday, December 1, 2011. The march will start from Herald Square and continue to Union Square, travelling down Broadway. Assembly is on 31st and 32nd Streets between Broadway and Fifth Avenues, with access from the Fifth Avenue side. The march is called for 4pm and the CLC projects it will last until 6pm. They are encouraging people to take part after work.

The CLC envisions it as a march for working people (union or not, employed or not) students, retirees, and all who want to hold government and corporate America accountable for decades of policies and actions that have worked to benefit the few at the expense of the many.

Before we get to this week's news, you should have just received in the mail or will shortly receive in the mail the latest newsletter, along with an announcement of this week's membership meeting and an invitation to our holiday party.

You probably are wondering why the first name on the envelope is not yours. There was an error in extracting the names from our database for our mailing and, thankfully, the last names, street addresses and city/state/zip are all correct. Just the first names lost their moorings. So, we are sorry for any confusion, want to reassure you that we do, in fact, know who you really are, and promise it will not happen again in future mailings.

Now for the real news. There are two bits of news this week.

First, John Liu, City Comptroller, has confirmed that he is planning to attend our general membership meeting this Thursday evening.

Comptroller Liu will discuss the changes in investing proposed for our pension funds. The new system will join the five existing pension systems for investment purposes.

Since Comptroller Liu will be talking about our money, and since the proposed change is a bit controversial, it should be an interesting meeting.

Second, DC37 entered bargaining last week. On arrival at the bargaining table, the city presented its list of demands to DC37. The city has twelve demands, all unwelcome.

In return for massive givebacks, the city is willing to offer us a five year contract with raises of 0, 0, 0, 2% and 2% and no additions to gross.

In return for this disgraceful offer, the city wants us to reduce our welfare fund, reduce our reserves, reduce our administrative expenditures and pay a 10% premium for our basic health benefits.

The mayor would also like us to eliminate seniority as a factor whenever management chooses to make any changes of assignment or transfer. More details will be available at the Thursday membership meeting.

We won another case. Contrary to existing practice, where an Admin Analyst Level MI non-managerial is appointed, their membership in OSA will be immediate. Previously, on occasion, the city held such individuals back claiming managerial or confidential status. We would fight for each one and when we won, the city would sometimes deny them retroactive salary and longevity monies.

No more. We just now won the arbitration, so the retroactive monies will be paid in such cases.