Big News. Pension Tier 6 was passed by the state legislature and will affect all city employees who join the pension system on or after April 1st.
Pension Tier 6 is much worse than Pension Tier 4. Most OSA members are in the pension already and will not be affected, but some members , some of your coworkers, have not signed up for a pension.
They have a few days of grace.
Please ask all of your coworkers if they are in the pension system. If they say no, please try to convince them to join immediately.
They can’t lose one penny, since if they leave they get every cent of payment returned. If they don’t leave, or if they leave and return to the job before their contributions are refunded, they will be in Pension Tier 4.
So, if you are a current OSA member who has not yet joined the pension system, we urge you to IMMEDIATELY ENROLL IN NYCERS PRIOR TO APRIL 1, 2012 to avoid reduced benefits.
The legislature passed the new pension tier in the middle of the night on Thursday. The governor signed it into law on Friday. We will have more details shortly on this website about the ways in which Tier 6 will harm the pension benefits of future city workers.
Other news. A mailing is out and should be in your hands. The same information is posted on this website as the March edition of the OSA Newsletter.
The OSA Women’s Committee celebration was attended by over fifty members and a good time was had by all. Photos will be up soon in the OSA Photo Gallery section of this website.
Our general membership meeting is this Thursday. SEIU organizer Rob Murray will be the featured speaker. He’ll tell the story of how Occupy Wall Street came into existence last year and their plans for this year.
Big News. Pension Tier 6 was passed by the state legislature and will affect all city employees who join the pension system on or after April 1st.
Pension Tier 6 is much worse than Pension Tier 4. Most OSA members are in the pension already and will not be affected, but some members, some of your coworkers, have not signed up for a pension.
They have a few days of grace.
Please ask all of your coworkers if they are in the pension system. If they say no, please try to convince them to join immediately.
They can’t lose one penny, since if they leave they get every cent of payment returned. If they don’t leave, or if they leave and return to the job before their contributions are refunded, they will be in Pension Tier 4.
In order to join, follow the instructions below. This is very important and affects 10% of our members. If they do not act before April 1st, they stand to lose a great deal of money. If they move now, they will be part of Tier 4 and covered by the guarantees built into the New York State constitution. This is very, very important. Please, tell your coworkers.
So, if you are a current OSA member who has not yet joined the pension system, we urge you to IMMEDIATELY ENROLL IN NYCERS PRIOR TO APRIL 1, 2012 to avoid reduced benefits.
The legislature passed the new pension tier in the middle of the night on Thursday. The governor signed it into law on Friday. We will have more details shortly on this website about the ways in which Tier 6 will harm the pension benefits of future city workers.
Other news. A mailing is out and the contents are posted as the OSA Newsletter for March on this website.
OSA's Women's Committee has put together a program for Thursday evening, March 22 from 6-9pm entitled "Hands On: Women on the Move," which will feature a panel of notable women in the local labor movement: Lee Clarke, Director of Health and Safety for AFSCME District Council 37; Yolanda Pumarejo, Executive Vice-President of SSEU/Local 371, DC37 AFSCME; Lauren Shapiro, Assistant General Counsel for our union; and Diane Stein, Safety and Health Coordinator for Teamsters Local 237. Also on the program will be an overview of financial issues by Ronni Brettschneider and info on estate planning by Renaye Cuyler. Light refreshments will be available. You can download a flyer for the event by clicking this link. If you plan to attend please call Carol Moten at the union office at 212-686-1229 to reserve a space.
Last week’s newsline mentioned that OSA had focused on the civil service changes requested by Governor Cuomo. Our opposition took the form of sending out copies of “Plunkitt of Tammany Hall” to the members of the state legislature, both Senate and Assembly.
To our surprise, we were quickly contacted, in return, by a few of those elected officials, thanking us for the book and agreeing with us. That was nice, and a hopeful sign.
On the other issue of Pension Tier 6, the fight continues. A recent addition to our side is the New York State AARP. The American Association of Retired Persons sent a letter which you can download at this link to the Governor and the state legislative leaders, strongly opposing both Tier 6 and the use of 401(k)s instead of a defined benefit pension.
Mayor Bloomberg and his media continue to insist we should work more years for less money, but we do not yet know the end of this story.
Our union was busy last week. The source of our activity was the governor’s attempt to shove both pension Tier 6 and state civil service “deform” into one neat, but unholy, budget package.
Much of the week was spent sending every State Senator and Assemblymember a copy of “Plunkitt of Tammany Hall,” plus a letter drawing the comparison between the governor and Boss G.W. Plunkitt, with Plunkitt coming off as the more honest politician.
A similar tactic gained us support when Mayor Bloomberg tried to get the city council to wipe out competitive testing. He asked them to agree to accept his always perfect judgement about which of his friends to hire.
On that topic, the mayor has struck out three years in a row. We are worried about the governor’s steamroller on the same topic, so we sent out copies of that funny, but accurate, little book.
We will also have a few copies left over for the next general membership meeting later this month on March 29th.
On Friday, our political activity reached the point where OSA Vice-Chairperson Tom Anderson was on a conference call to Albany regarding pension Tier 6, while Chairperson Bob Croghan was next door talking in person to Assemblymember Michelle Schimel from Queens.
Ms. Schimel understands the value of civil service to our members and has pledged to do all she can to defend the law from the governor’s attempt to weaken it.