We will start with disappointing news. We were hoping to conclude our main unit contract by the end of June. We actually thought we would get there after a few speedy technical meetings that seemed to resolve most issues.

Clearly now, this is not going to happen. At the Municipal Labor Committee meetings on Monday and Wednesday, all of the unions that had expected to settle once DC37 set the pattern were voicing their frustration over the terribly slow moving negotiations.

We were told about the departure of a number of staff from the Office of Labor Relations and also about the extent to which the budget talks had distracted OLR. That could all be true, as far as we know, but it does not make us one bit happier.

Now, of course, comes the summer. During the summer, OLR has trouble assembling teams of management representatives for bargaining from the various agencies. Then, too, OLR staff are themselves civil servants and, if they are due their vacations, we can expect further delays. We can promise that our bargaining team will be willing to show up if the City does, and we do so promise, day, night or weekends.

All of that said, we are not offering optimism at all.

Our second serious disappointment related to our organizing efforts on behalf of the MetroPlus administrative nurses. The New York State Nurses Association had withdrawn from that contest and, had DC37 withdrawn, those nurses would have been a part of our union by now.

Instead, after a number of weeks of discussion and waiting, DC37 has chosen to contest the election for the right to represent these five dozen nursing professionals.

DC37 did not lift a finger to help these nurses become eligible for representation. It was OSA’s volunteer field organizers and OSA’s hard-fighting lawyers who spent over three years fighting for the nurses.

Now, DC37 has chosen to delay the unionization of Metroplus nurses by insisting on an election. Worse yet, their reasons, openly given, is so they can add more members to Local 1549, a clerical administrative local.

We were told we could talk to Eddie Rodriguez of that Local if we wanted to appeal to them. We refused that offer as we know, from long experience, that it had no value at all.

We have fought for years to help the nurses get union coverage. We will now fight even harder to prevent DC37 simply seeking to pad 1549's membership rolls.

Our disappointment with DC37 in this matter is extreme. Okay, but it is an election and we will see what the nurses have to say.

Training for the upcoming Analyst exams will begin July 1st at the union office. Please arrive at 5:30pm on your scheduled evenings or at 8:30am on weekends. All of the materials are already on line on this website. See “Exams Lists and Training.” Bring only the curriculum for that day’s topic.

We will be training all this summer, but our air conditioning works and there will be fruit, cookies and juices to make students more comfortable.

It will be a busy summer for OSA, but perhaps not one that merits a weekly newsline. We will therefore go to our regular summer biweekly newsline schedule.

Obviously, if something newsworthy comes up, the message will be changed as fast as we know of it.

Check back on July 15th.

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

AUDIO June 27, 2019

The deadline for filing for the Associate and Administrative Staff Analyst exams is this Tuesday. If you are interested, act now.

Training for these exams starts on July 1st and will continue with sessions held weekday evenings and even on weekends. The curriculum and materials for this training is already up on our website at www.osaunion.org

If you are taking the classes, please print out and bring the curriculum with you to class. If you have not yet registered for the classes, you can still call George at the union office and select which session you wish to attend.

This Tuesday, a great many electoral races will take place. Our union does not usually get involved in most local races, nor will we this year. We will make an exception for the Queens District Attorney race. We were offended by the endorsement of one of the candidates by two of the Democratic candidates for President of the United States. We cannot imagine how either of them could feel qualified to judge the matter of this local race.

In response, we wish to add our support to the many other labor unions in supporting Melinda Katz for the job of Queens District Attorney. She has been a pro-labor elected official for many years. We like her record and we like her.

As always we are primarily interested in your voting. No matter who gets your vote, please do vote on Tuesday. Voting is a privilege that was hard-won for us and is always in danger of being lost. Voting is the one habit that we know does not do any harm and even makes us stronger. Voting is good for our health.

This newsline will be updated after Wednesday of this week.

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AUDIO June 24, 2019

We are now helping members of OSA and OSART on completion of their education and experience requirements for eligibility to take the upcoming open competitive exams. There are both Associate and Administrative open competitive exams coming up soon and filing is open for both now.

We do a fine job at helping our members get past the stumbling block of the Education & Experience qualifier and help on that task comes free for members of both OSA and OSART.

If you and/or a friend are filing for either exam, you really should call George at the union office right away. We are helping all this week and even up to the close of filing, but do not delay.

You can easily disqualify yourself by accident on these open competitive E&E qualifiers and then it gets awkward. If you have been trained before and know exactly what to do, great. If not, please call George this week and make the appointment.

Remember, even if you are taking an exam on a promotional basis, you probably should cross-file for the OC as well, as a safety measure. Two years from now, your agency may not be able to appoint you and, if you are not on the OC list as well, you would be stuck. So call and get trained.

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

AUDIO June 17, 2019

Okay, so we do know that we are getting some nice improvements in our proposed contract. There will be an improvement in our Welfare Fund and there will be increased longevity for some members and a new longevity differential for the first time for other members more recently organized. Final details are awaiting sign off by the City before we can present them to you for a vote on approval.

We can not speed up the City at all, but we can avoid slowing them down by removing from our demands items that would delay final agreement.

For example, we have asked the City to get serious about the currently absurd Managerial Pay Plan. We want the salary of any person appointed to Level M1 to be at least as high as 10% above that of the minimum of the next lower title. Currently, M1 entry level salaries are often far below that of even their most junior subordinates. That looks crazy and is crazy.

This matters to us because we now represent employees formerly paid as M1 or MII or MIII level employees.

Therefore, we do have a demand on the table relating to the minimum salaries, but there has been no progress on it and we are sure there will be no progress on it in our current negotiation.

The City will be unwilling to give in to our demand, nor will we give in either. Thus we have told the City to leave this topic on the table, to be determined, for the next round of bargaining.

Originally, only OSA had won the right to represent formerly Managerial employees but ten years after we did, CWA won for their first M level members and recently DC37 and SEIU have followed in our footsteps. We are now hoping to join our new allies in a joint position on behalf of our members at the next round of bargaining.

It is a major issue, but one the bargaining team feels should not hold up our current contract bargaining any further.

By dropping demands we can not now win, we are trying to conclude bargaining ASAP (as soon as possible).

If our tactics work, we should hear soon. If not, be patient, we will keep on trying.

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AUDIO June 10, 2019

Thank you for calling the Organization of Staff Analysts’ newsline for the week starting Monday, June 3, 2019.

Not much news this week, but we do have a request for a few jobs to be filled at NYC Health+Hospitals. The first set of jobs are open to our Senior Consultants (Management Information Services).

There is a job as a Functional Analyst available at Business Applications and another Functional Analyst position at the PeopleSoft payroll section. There is also need for a Desktop IT Technician for the Enterprise Infrastructure section and there is also a position available for a Data Center Engineer for IT Facility Management. They also need a few EPIC Clinical Business Analysts for their Revenue Cycle/Corporate Applications division.

Here is the full list with Job #s, Posting Titles and Departments:

45994

Functional Analyst, Clairvia (Senior Consultant MIS Level A) Business Applications

46005

Desktop IT Technician (Senior Consultant MIS - Level A), Enterprise Infrastructure (Multiple Positions)

46008

Data Center Operations Engineer/IT Facility Management (Senior Consultant MIS - Level A), Mid-Range Computing

46010

EPIC Clinical Business Analyst Level 2, Revenue Cycle/Corporate Applications (Multiple Positions)

45993

Functional Analyst, PeopleSoft Payroll (Senior Consultant MIS- Level B), EITS/ERP Initiative

If you are in the right title and are interested, please visit their website at http://employment. nychhc.org and search for the job number for details and to know where to apply.

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AUDIO June 3, 2019