It took a while, but we have good news. As of this Monday, the Chief newspaper will be emailing a welcome and instructions on how to access that newspaper over the internet.

More than 2000 persons represented by OSA have agreed to allow the union to communicate with their home emails and most of those will now be receiving the Civil Service Chief on Monday nights before the paper hits the newsstands.

We have been working on getting this right for nearly a year, but this week is the test. If it works, OSA members will be among the first to learn of new developments in our City each week.

Many thanks to Rob Spencer of our union and Joe and Ed Prial of the Chief for seeing this through.

Last week, the training classes began but, if you know of someone taking the Staff Analyst Trainee exam, our preparation course is still accepting late enrollees. Please call George at the union office.

If you'd like to listen to this week's newsline as an audio file, click on this link:

AUDIO April 30, 2018

The training materials and information needed for the Staff Analyst Trainee Exam Preparation Course are now up on this website on the Exams, Lists and Training page.

The first classes will be starting this week either Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Classes register at 5:30pm during the week and 8:30am on the weekend.

You can still register to enroll in this course series by calling George at the union office to sign up.

If you'd like to listen to this week's newsline as an audio file, click on this link:

AUDIO April 23, 2018

Members who have not yet signed up for the Staff Analyst Trainee exam preparation course,can still call George at the union office to sign up.

We also have news about a scholarship being established by one of our members.

Associate Staff Analyst Michelle Barnes-Anderson, OSA's vice-chair at the Department of Small Business Services, informs the union that there are two funds that have been established for John Jay College students in the memory of her son Melquain Jatelle Anderson, whose life was cut short in an untimely manner while he was still a student at John Jay.

The first is the Melquain Jatelle Anderson Memorial Scholarship For Sociology and the second is the Melquain Jatelle Anderson Student Emergency Assistance Fund. Both have deadlines for application at the end of April.

You can find more information about the funds and how to apply to them at the links that appear below:

Melquain Jatelle Anderson Memorial Scholarship for Sociology

and

Melquain Jatelle Anderson Student Emergency Assistance Fund

If you'd like to listen to this week's newsline as an audio file, click on this link:

AUDIO April 16, 2018

Our classes for the Staff Analyst Trainee Exam Preparation Course are shaping up nicely. The teachers have been meeting and the training is nearly finalized.

If you – or anyone you know – is taking the SAT exam, call George Morgan at the union office in order to register now.

The course and all materials related to the course are, as usual, free to members of our union and non-members are invited to join OSART.

Please don’t delay as the training will start soon and we need to be able to prepare enough materials .

We did have a problem last week as one agency decided to bar our union representative from the agency’s hiring pool. This happens every once in a while, since some agencies occasionally prefer opacity over transparency.

The problem has now been resolved and, as usual, OSA will have representatives at the pool.

If you'd like to listen to this week's newsline as an audio file, click on this link:

AUDIO April 9, 2018

We seem to be getting closer on our drives to organize in the hospitals. We are approaching 20% or over one hundred unit designation cards for the Nurses campaign. We already have over 75% of the Customer Representatives signed up.

We are in the end stage in discussions with CWA Local 1180 regarding the Assistant and Associate Directors of Hospitals and, finally, our long- awaited fight to represent Health Services Managers seems to be nearing success, at least for Levels 1 and 2.

Now, each of these campaigns has taken years, but if we finally succeed, over one thousand more workers will have due process and union representation.

Is it worth all this effort over so many years?

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

Organizing is what a union should always be doing.

This is partially why, when we became a union, we kept the name Organization of Staff Analysts.

If you'd like to listen to this week's newsline as an audio file, click on this link:

AUDIO April 2, 2018