OSA Newsline - January 25, 1999
One last piece of collective bargaining election trivia. The OSA newsline last week reported the correct phone number for Transit Analysts who had not gotten their ballots. Meanwhile, the New York City Transit in-house newsletter, Weekly News, gave similar information as well. The only problem was that the publication put out by management gave the wrong phone number. If you called the TA number and left a message or got frustrated, you could as a result, lose your vote.Exactly why Transit went to the trouble of misdirecting voters in need of replacement ballots is not clear to us. Ballots will be counted on February 5 in any case.
The January general membership meeting is set for this Thursday at 125 Worth Street, 2nd Floor Auditorium at 6pm sharp. Topping the agenda will be the inauguration of the officers.
OSA Newsline - January 18, 1999
A report by the bargaining team will be on our agenda at the meeting next week.
Analysts voting in the Transit election can obtain replacement ballots by calling the Public Employment Relations Board on this Wednesday only.
If you did not receive or lost your ballot, call 1 (800) 994-0110. You must call between 8:30am and 4:30pm. Thereafter ballots must be received back to PERB by no later than February 3, so please vote quickly.
OSA Newsline - January 12, 1999
A membership mailing is due out this week and will appear on the News from OSA page on this website shortly. In the mailing is a discussion of our recent union election and an explanation as to why the election was, finally, uncontested. There is also a discussion of a very much contested collective bargaining election at the Transit Authority and MaBSTOA. As the mailing notes, the Transit Office of Labor Relations not only did everything they could to deny us access to our brothers and sisters in Transit, they even went one step beyond. TA issued misleading and false documents with the Christmas Eve paychecks.
The January membership meeting will inaugurate the new officers and report on collective bargaining and on the Citywide Contract.
In addition, there will also be a report on our organizing drives and, at the request of a number of members, a discussion of the turmoil at DC 37.
OSA Newsline - January 4, 1999
The big news last week was the Transit Authority's last-minute attempt to mislead their Analysts into voting against the union. Printed documents were issued by the Office of Labor Relations consisting of deceitful questions and answers and dishonest charts and tables.According to this propaganda, there are four elections when in fact there are only two, TA and OA. As they tell the story, there is no value to a union if you are brought up on charges, while we all know that to be untrue.
They have come up with spurious charts showing that you are as well or better off financially without a union, while they ignore the union's $1,007 10 year longevity, the $1,007 15 year longevity and the final total of $3,012 for union members who have completed twenty years.
On benefits they outdo themselves.
There is a State law forbidding any changes in benefits after the voting and until final contract negotiations are completed. Therefore, there will be no change unless we agree to a change, and Labor Relations knows this. Even so, they print up charts showing that Analysts will be losing benefits by voting for the union. This is simply not true.
OSA has never changed benefits for newly organized Analysts and has no intention to do so in the future.
In addition to implying a change in benefits that will not occur, the chart is also wildly inaccurate in reporting on the current OSA benefits. The City Analysts are covered by the Management Benefits Fund benefits. Those are pretty good benefits, but you would never know that from the chart provided.
The final great lie is their frequently repeated claim that they are neutral in this election. They must say these words because the law says that they are supposed to be neutral, but they are not neutral.
Last week three of our field organizers were repeatedly thrown out of work locations. They were there to hand out our answers to TA's "questions". They were thrown out because TA does not want you to hear our answers, and they were thrown out repeatedly because, God bless them, they kept going back.
After absolute inaccuracy in all other matters, Transit did almost get our dues correct. Seven-tenths of one percent (.7%) will work out to $350 on a $50,000 annual salary and we are rather proud of these dues. In return for the lowest dues in town, set by membership vote, we have one of the highest service and most aggressive unions existing. TA has been desperately fighting our arrival on the Transit scene and they are correct. We will be a force on behalf of our brothers and sisters in career development, increased wages, grievances, fair treatment and job security.
