News From OSA - March, 2021

Thank you. The Organization of Staff Analysts is a democratic labor union founded over a half century ago. Our union elections are held once every two years. Nominations were opened in November and an unopposed slate of officers was elected (or, in many cases, re-elected) in December.

I am grateful, as are all the officers you see listed on our letterhead stationery, for the responsibility and privilege of representing our union for the next two years.

In the years to come, OSA will need more activists to come forward to replace those of us who retire or pass from the scene. Please keep this in mind once the pandemic recedes and we can return to regular meetings.

COMMUNICATIONS. Since the start of the pandemic, we have been communicating far more by newsline and website than by mail. In the beginning, this was due to the speed with which things were occurring, directly due to the spread of the plague. Regular mail was too slow.

Recently, the opposite was true as the impact of all the effects of COVID-19 created situations that spun out slowly. The threat of layoffs depended on the aid (or lack of it) that would come to our cities and states, and this depended on our national election. Then, once the election was held, the results were denied and, right up through the month of January, the transition was challenged.

Finally, in January, the new administration was able to give us a good idea of the future and a number of important issues could be addressed.

While we do know that many, but not all, of our members have stayed in touch over telephone and internet, we also know that other members are accustomed to reports by mail. There is an advantage to such reports in any case and, by now, we have enough news to share.

LAYOFFS. The threat of layoffs during 2021 has receded due to extra monies coming from Washington. There has been a shrinkage of City employment due to attrition in any case. Finally, a number of unions offered contractual payment delays and those delays helped the City.

No one can make assurances for 2022 since New York City and New York State will both still be recovering economically from COVID-19 and there will be a new Mayor. If we get the wrong Mayor, Wall Street always stands ready to use any fiscal crisis to argue against the cost of the civil servants.

For now, at least, we seem okay.

AN EARLY RETIREMENT OFFER... seemed to be a near certainty late last year. The City and State were willing and we were awaiting details. Now, the good news on federal fiscal aid has changed the City's mind and, while there are still bills floating around in Albany, there is far less certainty that an offer will be made. This is a great disappointment for many of our members. This may change over the next few months, so check the phone hotline or web newsline regularly.

CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS. There is irony here. In our prior contract, OSA held up negotiations to seek items above and beyond the "pattern," and we did get half of what we sought after impasse proceedings. This caused much controversy since some members preferred the union not to fight, but the majority did support our doing so.

Once we had won, it turned out that our fight had only slowed the negotiation process down by six months, even though those felt like very long months at the time.

This time, we were open about our desire to gain a quick contract and the City assured us that they were also. Once DC 37 had set the pattern in mid-2018, our own negotiations only focused on staying within the pattern and concluding quickly. The City, on the other hand, moved slowly and scheduled few meetings.

By 2019, we had lost patience and, in May, we publicly announced our decision to settle, but it still took the City until the Fall to meet again, and they were raising issues we were willing to drop (as outside the pattern). We responded well on these issues, giving so lucid an argument that, had we been willing to go to arbitration, we might have won. In response, the City stopped asking about those demands.

So, by March of 2020, we were expecting to conclude the contract. A meeting was set for March 16th. It turned out the City representatives refused to assemble, due to their entirely justified fears of gathering more than 50 people together from all over in a closed room in times of plague.

Thereafter, negotiations proceeded (poorly) by telephone and hours of work were put in by our staff and theirs on details. Negotiating a contract while working from home turns out to be a slow process indeed. Worse yet, the economic disaster of potential City/State bankruptcy began to overshadow our hopes for a successful conclusion to negotiations.

The City essentially told us in May of 2020 that they could not conclude negotiations until things were clearer. They had a good argument at the time.

However, by January of this year the City's argument was no longer reasonable. We requested a return to bargaining. In February, we argued that if there was no return (and completion) we would take legal action.

And then, of course, we did.

Our union is covered by the Office of Collective Bargaining Law and it is illegal for the City to fail to bargain with us in good faith.

It is rare for a union to file an improper practice petition seeking relief from the Board of Collective Bargaining, because clear violations of the duty to bargain are rare. This violation is clear and very one-sided.

We have posted the improper practice petition documents on this website as part of the March 1st "OSAWeekly Newsline." We filled out the legal forms, gave the timeline, evidence, and legal precedents, and made our arguments. No one needs to be a lawyer to understand the filing, as our lawyers made a very clear case.

We filed these papers when we did simply because we had to. Were we to wait until the City decided to complete our negotiations, we could have run out of time. All of these legal proceedings do take time, and we are facing a new Mayor and possible fiscal problems in 2022.

We would hope to be at the bargaining table before Summer and we may need to seek arbitration if the City remains reluctant.

We expect to conclude our contract within the established pattern and, hopefully, by the Fall.

The irony is that, since the union's recognition in 1985, this is the longest negotiation in our entire history and, for once, we really weren't fighting them for more.

RETIREE HEALTH PLAN CHANGES. There have been changes in how our government wants to handle Medicare over the past few years.

If we are retired, we are currently eligible to sign up with Medicare at age 65 and most of us choose to continue whichever basic City health plan we were enrolled in as active employees. Those who were enrolled in GHI CBP as actives usually choose to sign up for GHI Senior Care as a supplemental Medigap plan when we become Medicare-eligible. We can also choose another supplemental plan. The two, Medicare plus a supplemental (Medigap) plan, work together to provide us with good health coverage at little out-of-pocket cost when we are sick.

Under the new program, GHI Senior Care will be replaced by a Medicare Advantage plan. As a result, our retirees will no longer be receiving mail from both Medicare and our supplemental insurance, but only from the "Advantage" insurer.

The federal government loves this idea, for whatever reason, and possibly they are right. However, right or wrong, they are offering subsidies to the Medicare Advantage plans to see if the new idea works.

We are, naturally, terrified. We are, after all, either retirees or members waiting to retire. We know that what we have works and it is pretty good. Change it and we worry.

The one hopeful factor here is that our health benefits are subject to collective bargaining and the City cannot act unilaterally.

Thus, our Municipal Labor Committee unions assembled in large numbers on Zoom recently, to hear from the MLC's Technical Health Subcommittee about the ongoing negotiations.

The City's goal is cost-saving on their end and the insurance companies' goal is to get both our business and the federal government subsidies for this new model of medical coverage.

Our goal is to preserve ourselves from harm and, to this end, we want to keep our own doctors and avoid increased co-pays or insurance premiums or any one of these changes that could hurt us.

This is a really interesting and serious topic and explains why our recent MLC meetings have been scoring record attendance.

Yet, there are no final answers. The bidding process and negotiations by the City and the MLC with bidding companies is ongoing, but not yet complete. We do know that we are expected to be able to keep our own doctors and will not be forced into a clinic-like model. But, there are more questions that need answers.

OSA has increased our own involvement in this process. We already hold a seat on the Health Technical Subcommittee and are generally represented by Vojna Stanic-Geraghty, and now Executive Board member John Mazzarella will be working with her. John is himself one of our most experienced retiree pension counselors and super-alert to anything that might hurt our retirees.

There will be a lot more on the coming change as the months go by. One important demand by the MLC is that we are able to ensure our retirees are alerted to the changes long before they occur.

Among the companies bidding are our familiar Emblem and Empire insurance companies, so perhaps it will not be all that different.

CHANGING AGENCIES. One strange result of last year's "Defund the Police" campaign was the removal of School Safety and Traffic Enforcement from the Police Department's budget and their planned return (next Summer) to the Department of Education and Department of Transportation budgets.

Both OSA and Local 237 Teamsters are distressed that our members are being used as pawns in a political game that will affect their lives. Our concerns are for both sets of officers, but School Safety is being especially targeted for change.

Our members come from the highest ranks in each of these divisions and know well what works and what does not. Even so, outside consultants are busy reinventing the wheel, with potentially disastrous results.

These changes are over a year off, but it is good that our members and our union are fully involved in the process.

One point to be noted is that both programs were taken from their original home agencies for good reasons (School Safety especially) and there were benefits to their absorption into the Police Department. Our union will be paying a great deal of attention to this issue over the next year.

A SAD CHANGING OF THE GUARD. Bill Douglas was one of OSA's earliest activists. He was a member from the 1970's and, by 1985, was an officer of our union. Bill eventually rose to Vice-Chairperson and was one of the small team of Analysts tasked with creating our Welfare Fund.

Those were very stressful times, since we did know that we would be thrown out of the Management Benefits Fund by a vindictive City administration. Mayor Koch hated the fact that the Analysts had self-organized into a union and he would do all he could to hurt us.

The Office of Labor Relations had told us that we would lose our benefits before we even negotiated our first contract. That, of course, would have been a disaster for our members, but we were able to avoid that action, with help from some friends in the City Council.

The City had grudgingly agreed to keep us in the MBF until we had a contract and the income stream needed to create a union welfare fund. Our members had opted for OSA to seek to match the MBF benefits, but doing that would be difficult, especially given the difference in scale - 20,000 MBF members versus OSA's initial 600 members.

Bill was a part of that effort and did a great job helping us get through and out the other side with no break at all in benefits coverage.

Bill continued on, as OSA's Vice-Chairperson and a Trustee of the Welfare Fund until he retired from the City and began his practice as a psychotherapist.

When he left City employment, he stepped down as Vice-Chairperson to a newly created position as Welfare Fund Trustee representing our retirees. He held that job and rarely missed a meeting for decades.

Bill passed away a few months ago and the Welfare Fund staff and his fellow Trustees will miss his sensitive, caring presence.

Mike Schady was asked to fill in for Bill and this would have pleased Bill. Michael was active with the SSEU Local 371 Welfare Fund as far back as the 1960's and, thereafter, through the Managerial Employees Association, with the MBF. Mike also spent years as an active member of OSA, and is, as Bill was, now a very active retiree.

LIFE STATION. We had hoped to be sending out enrollment forms for a new optional benefit offered by our Welfare Fund. Alas, COVID-19 slowed that down, along with so much else. The new benefit is similar to offers you have seen on TV, where an older person falls and is in need of aid.

Many of our retired members have now reached an age where such a product makes sense. In 1985, we had no retired OSA members at all, but by now we are closing in on 3,000.

Michael Schady was asked to research such products and he did so for a few months. He finally selected a company he felt offered the best features and lowest cost. Thereafter, Michael Goodwin, friend of OSA and former President of the Office and Professional Employees International Union(OPEIU), was asked to negotiate on our behalf.

All this has occurred and we are getting an improved offer, but not yet. Final details and printed brochures are promised by our next mailing.

ENDORSEMENTS. The June primaries mean that unions typically recommend candidates for office. As you can see from this article from the "Chief" newspaper, we do have a favorite for Mayor, Scott Stringer.

We have also been asked for an endorsement by Steve Behar, candidate for the 23rd City Council District in Queens. We had not known Steve before, so we quizzed him at length before agreeing. It turns out that Steve is a very smart, well-educated young man. Moreover, we liked his discernment on the topic of the transfer of School Safety and Traffic Enforcement out of the Police Department. Good. He seems to understand that there are down sides to the move.

Ben Kallos is an easy endorsement for Borough President of Manhattan. Ben has been a friend to OSA during his entire service in the City Council and he has energy, drive, and is just plain likable.

Christopher Chin is running for Civil Court Judge for District 2 in New York County. Why are we endorsing a candidate for Judge? He's family.

Ida Chin was a long time member who, in retirement, chose to come to volunteer at OSA as a union organizer. Many of you knew Ida. She was a part of our organizational team for many years. Some of you were recruited by her or by those she talked to.

Ida gave to us all wholeheartedly and asked nothing in return. Ida raised a fine son named Christopher and, since she is no longer here to ask it of you, your union is asking you to cast a vote for her son for Civil Court Judge. He is our family (and a very nice young man).

Dan Quart, a friend to OSA in Albany these past ten years and more, has chosen to seek the position of New York County District Attorney. Dan has many plans for the office, but mostly he has a track record with us as a pro-labor, decent man.

9/11 DEADLINE LOOMS. Many of our members and retirees experienced the trauma of the September, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center while at work sites downtown in close proximity to "ground zero." Quite a few have also suffered ongoing medical problems from toxic exposures that day and in the months afterward.

We are approaching the twentieth anniversary of that fateful day this September but, even before that, there is a deadline on July 29, 2021 for many suffering with physical health impacts from 9/11.

As most of you are probably aware, the 2011 James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act established the federal World Trade Center Health Program to provide treatment for those with physical and mental health impacts from the WTC attack. The bill also reopened the Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) to offer financial support to those with physical health problems from 9/11 or to the families of those who passed away from those problems.

If you have been certified by the World Trade Center Health Program for a 9/11-related physical health condition before July 29, 2019, you are required to register a potential claim with the Victim Compensation Fund by July 29, 2021.

The same deadline of July 29, 2021 holds for those registering to file a claim for an individual you believe died of a 9/11-related physical health condition before July 29, 2019.

You can download from this link an information sheet from the VCF that explains the difference between registering a claim and filing a claim with the VCF and the deadlines for each.

If you have questions about registering, we urge you to call the VCF Helpline at 1-855-885-1555.

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