Five percent, three percent, four percent and a couple of percent of help on their health benefits and pensions. Not bad at all. Congratulations to our brothers and sisters of the Transport Workers Union!
Our own holiday party on the 14th went off very nicely and the extra space worked quite well to reduce crowding. We did find one set of keys left behind so, if they might be yours, call Marzie or Diana at the union office.
The Staff Analyst pools are being held now at many agencies and OSA reps attended the Housing Authority pool last week. We will seek to visit others when we learn of them in time.
Candidates awaiting appointment to Staff Analyst should check the Newsline section of this website regularly. As matters develop we will keep you informed.
We will not, however, necessarily, update this newsline again this century as matters are usually quiet for the next two weeks.
Thank you for using the site and log on again for the next thousand years.
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OSA Newsline -- December 13, 1999
We will update this week's newsline if a labor dispute occurs between the Transit Authority and the Transport Workers Union later this week. OSA and our members will not directly be involved in a transport strike but, of course, we are sympathetic to our brothers and sisters of the Transport Workers Union.
We will not work out-of-title driving a train or cleaning subway cars nor will we accept any unsafe conditions at the demand of management.
A large group of our retired members arrived at 3:00pm for last week's Transport Workers Union rally in midtown and OSA was in the very front of the crowd at the demonstration.
We are proud of our retiree activists and our hearts are with the men and women of the Transit workforce. Mike Quill left behind a tradition of a unionized and adequately paid transit workforce. The MTA and the City have eroded that pay structure, brought in Work Experience Program workers at below minimum wage and are seeking to break this union.
The TWU will not stand alone in this fight. We hope there will be no strike but, if there is, the fault is clearly management's.
Other news. The Easy Rider Coalition has had some progress in improving the current problems of the GHI drug rider. A seat on the Municipal Labor Committee's Health Subcommittee has been given to the coalition. Our representative will now have the task of improving communication between that committee and our thousands of members. It will be done.
The vote count on our Citywide contract is now final. There were 602 valid yes votes cast, 27 members voted no, and 23 more votes arrived but are not a part of the official count. The invalid ballots arrived by fax, or on photocopied ballots or were signed. Only unsigned original ballots could be counted.
About one-third of our duespaying members voted, and the overall result was a 95 and 3/4 percent vote of approval, the highest yes vote in our local's history. Nearly one hundred agency shop fee payers also asked to become members, so that they would be eligible to vote on the next occasion. Our vote was 12 percent more affirmative on this contract than was DC37's membership vote. This was expected for a number of reasons, not least that we, particularly, had run into Diane McGrath McKechnie. A vote for this contract was a vote to forbid any repetition of that cruel stonehearted Commissioner's behavior in the future.
Come by for OSA's Holiday Party this Tuesday afternoon 5 till whenever.
OSA Newsline -- December 6, 1999
An election committee counted Citywide Contract ballots at last Thursday's membership meeting and the results thus far were a vote of 459 in favor and 21 opposed. OSA will continue to accept ballots until next week and next week's tape will give the final results.
Normally we do not count ballots in the middle of voting, but since DC37 chose to count and publicize their vote, 14,000 to 2,000 it takes a lot of the suspense away.
There is a big rally due this Wednesday at the MTA headquarters. Randi Weingarten has asked all MLC unions to support the Transport Workers Union rally at Madison Avenue & 44th St. OSA will be there. The rally will start at 3:30 PM and go to 5:30 PM and members should seek to attend if they can possibly make it.
Look for our banner and pick up our special hats for the demonstration. Also don't forget the Holiday party, Tuesday, December 14th.
