UNION ELECTION. The current officers of the Organization of Staff Analysts were nominated to continue in office at the November general membership meeting. There was no opposition. Therefore, they will be sworn in at the January membership meeting for a new two-year term.

On behalf of the officers and staff of the Organization of Staff Analysts, I wish to express my gratitude for the opportunity to continue to represent you and all of our brothers and sisters for the next two years. It will be a challenging period.

TRUMP. There will be major changes when Donald Trump takes office. It is true that many of those who voted for him do want change, but they may not like all the changes that will now occur. Time will tell.

One set of changes that we will not like are those affecting labor. First and foremost, the Supreme Court will undoubtedly forbid agency shop fees.

Until now, northern states, in general, allowed unions to represent all the workers in a job title, so long as a majority of those workers wanted to be represented. In the private sector, union membership could be required by negotiated contract. In the public sector, membership was always voluntary, but represented nonmembers would pay an agency shop fee because they were getting the same representation and services as everyone else.

The southern states, in general, discouraged unions, forbade by law requiring union membership and seldom allowed agency shop fees. The result was that unions in the southern states were weaker than those in the north.

Now, we expect, the southern rules will become the law of the land by way of Supreme Court rulings over the months to come. The public sector will be the first target.

There are many details that matter and have not been worked out, but the goal is to diminish the financial support received by public employee unions. This will occur.

Our union has always maintained a low rate of dues (7/10ths of 1% of income). We have done so by maintaining generally low salaries and a heavy reliance on volunteers, but some expenses (lawyers, arbitrations, phones, office equipment, and leased office rental space) are highly inflexible. In short, we have a problem.

There is an asset that OSA has that will matter a lot. Our history.

OSA spent 15 years seeking to become a union (30 years if you include prior efforts by personnel examiners to obtain unionized status). That may well be a record for persistence by a group that never lost hope. Even in 1985, only thirty or so analysts were allowed to be represented, but twenty times that number were paying dues seeking to be unionized.

Those of us who supported a union believed that the union would get us more money.

The union did. Between 1989 and 2016 our union added longevity raises that, today, are worth over $5,400 a year for Staff and Associate Staff Analysts. (The amount is less for titles added after 1989, but all longevity awards grow with time.)

No such raises went to unrepresented employees. We have also, year after year, won payroll and out-of-title grievances. The total amount is into the millions of dollars in gained raises.

Those of us who supported a union wanted increased fairness for our members.

In 1988, 4% of our 300 provisional members were told they were going to be fired. The reasons for these firings were outrageous, but we were only OSART, a professional association. Even so, we were able to stop three of the twelve firings. The next year, we were OSA, a union, and only one member was brought up on charges. Since we now had the right to insist on proof of wrongdoing, we were able to win the one case that did arise.

Those of us who supported a union wanted permanent civil service status for our members.

In 1988, 80% of analysts were provisional. By 1993, we had sued for, won the right to, and prepared our members for Staff and Associate exams. Soon, we were 80% permanent in status.

At present, thousands of our members are being appointed or promoted and this, too, has a lot to do with our union.

These are all reasons why we believe in and support our union and hope you do too. Some 36 other reasons to thank a union are included on the flyer that you can download at this link.

But... we also recognize that once many of those who are currently paying dues or agency shop fees are offered the chance to save .007 of salary by not paying dues, they will choose to save the money, and be very happy to do so.

They will be wrong because we have never, ever wasted their money and always used it to try to get a better deal for them. And we did succeed, financially and in terms of on-the-job fairness, permanent status and promotions.

Even so, we will lose those who choose to be “free riders,” letting others pay dues for benefits they receive as well. But, OSA will retain those of us wise enough to understand that we are stronger together than alone, that fighting for our rights is worth doing and that there is an enormous value to having “brothers and sisters” who care about us.

TRAINING. OSA needs a few good leaders for the years to come.

It is good that John Ost still volunteers one day a week in our grievance office. He is very experienced, having done grievances and represented analysts since long before we became a union. John, however, wants to train his replacement for the future.

There has never been a financial reward for caring about and helping OSA succeed and, given the likely near future, this is not likely to change (except probably for the worse).

There has always been a huge emotional reward from being a part of a group seeking to use our skills and energy to help our fellow members. We have done marvelous things together.

Training for delegates is soon to be offered to any and all interested. The goal is to prepare ourselves for the years to come.

The OSA Activists Classroom Training (the OSA ACT) will cover a number of topics: