Our union has been negotiating both formally and informally all throughout the summer, but just to add to our busyness, the Office of Collective Bargaining has scheduled a collective bargaining election.

Our union began seeking collective bargaining status for Senior Consultants (Management Information Services) over four years ago. Once over 100 members of the Health and Hospitals Corporation title series had signed our union designation cards, we filed to represent them.

Only at that point, DC37 intervened, although they had not previously collected one card in support of unionization. Even so, this slowed matters down for the hearings and two more years were wasted. Now there will finally be an election this October and both DC37 and our union are engaged in a campaign.

We are delighted that nearly 300 white collar workers will finally be accorded their new status as occupationally secure non-competitive civil servants as soon as the election is complete.

We also hope they will vote for OSA in the election, since we were the only union that cared enough to help them four years ago.

The summer mailing is now complete and has gone to the mailing house. Members can expect to receive it before Labor Day. The complete mailing is already posted on this website as the August, 2015 edition of the "OSA Newsletter."

Of special interest is the Labor Day parade set for September 12th. It is a great day and all members and their families are encouraged to participate.

Negotiations have been proceeding through the recent hot days of August. These negotiations have been difficult. At this sensitive stage, it is inappropriate to go into details and so we will not do so. We are, however, cautiously optimistic of a resolution of the issues remaining.

Our union recently filed an improper practice petition before the Office of Collective Bargaining. The subject of the petition was the failure of the City and New York City Housing Authority to properly pay raises to some of our members.

Specifically, we are talking about Administrative Community Relations Specialists and the Administrative Staff Analysts Levels II and III.

Those ACRS members who joined us as members in June of 2014, and the Admin IIs and IIIs who joined us in February of 2013 were involved.

Our objection was that these folks were due the managerial raise and the retroactive pay for the period prior to joining the union. The City did pay the retroactive raise, but did not raise the members’ salary. The Housing Authority put through the raise in salary, but did not pay the retroactive monies due.

When we brought the matter to the bargaining table, the City and NYCHA said “oops.”

Oops, however, was not a satisfactory answer, so the union filed to get the other half of the job done for our members.

We have now been informed that the City and the Housing Authority have both completed paying the retro and the raise for everyone in that category.

We hope so, but just in case, if you are an ACRS who joined us in June of 2014 or an Admin II or III who joined us in February of 2013 and you did not get both the managerial raise and the retroactive pay, call the Grievance Department.

Finally, the Health and Hospitals Corporation started off by not paying the retro or raising the rate, but now we are told they have done so. If not, call the Grievance Department.

Also overdue was publication and certification of the Staff Analyst Trainee list. No longer. The list is published and available on this website in both alphabetical and in score order. Also on the website is a list of thirteen agencies that have been sent that list. See the "Exams, Lists and Training" page.

Negotiations. Although our union has been spending time on trying to conclude our contract, progress in summer is slow due to vacations. Not our vacations, please note – the other guys.

One more bit of work completed is the item analysis for the recent Administrative Staff Analyst exam. This, too, is to be found on this website. Good luck to those of you comparing your answer sheet against the analysis and, remember, the analysis only shows the consensus answers. The DCAS tentative answer key may well be somewhat different. See the "Exams, Lists and Training" page for the item analysis.