| OSA Newsline - March 26, 2018
The SAT filing ends this Tuesday, so move quickly if you wish to file.
The other news this week is our Thursday general membership meeting. The location is the union office on 23rd Street and the time is 6pm sharp.
The meeting will discuss negotiations on our next contract and is expected to last about one hour. It will be followed by dinner. For those remaining after dinner, the Activist Classroom Training session will be held. Prior sessions have concluded between 8pm and 9pm, ending usually about 8:30pm.
It is important for all of our members who are enrolled or who wish to enroll as activists to attend next Thursday’s meeting. If you are not yet enrolled for this training, call John LaGuardia at the union office so that he can have your books and materials waiting for you.
If you'd like to listen to this week's newsline as an audio file, click on this link:
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| OSA Newsline - March 19, 2018
Filing for the Staff Analyst Trainee exam is going on now and will end early next week. OSA will be holding classes to help prepare for the exam.
Union activists should mention the SAT exam to their fellow workers in case someone has a friend or relative graduating this June.
You can go to our website at www.osaunion.org for linkage or to the DCAS website directly.
Our own Activist Classroom Training next session is set for next week after the General Membership meeting.
If you'd like to listen to this week's newsline as an audio file, click on this link:
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| OSA Newsline - March 12, 2018
A bit of good news this week. The Board of Collective Bargaining has ruled in our favor in the case relating to the Directors of Planning of New York City Health + Hospitals.
None of the employees in that title have duties that are either managerial or confidential. As a result, all of them, as of March 7th of this year are eligible for union coverage. Each now has been awarded the status of non-competitive civil servant and with that status, due process rights. Such rights provide greatly increased job security.
Our congratulations to the new members and our thanks to OSA’s hard working legal team, especially Assistant General Counsel Nora Sullivan.
Meanwhile, Executive Director Sheila Gorsky is still seeking one or more trainers for the upcoming Staff Analyst Trainee exam. She needs trainers who have knowledge of contracts and budget. If this is you, call John LaGuardia at the union office.
Filing for that exam is going on now.
If you'd like to listen to this week's newsline as an audio file, click on this link:
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| OSA Newsline - March 5, 2018
The big news this week is the opening of filing for the next Staff Analyst Trainee exam. Applications will be posted online at the DCAS application website as early as this Wednesday, March 7th.
This is important to any of our members who might benefit from taking this exam. Some of our members are on the current, existing Staff Analyst Trainee list. It is, however, past practice of the Personnel branch of DCAS to keep civil service exam lists active for at least one year but generally not more than four years. Also, if a new exam is given, marked and certified, the prior list is killed.
So then, is it necessary to take the new exam if you are on the existing list for the old exam. If you are sure of being appointed off that list, great. Otherwise it is wise to apply for the exam again.
Other members who are not yet permanent in a competitive civil service position may also wish to file for this exam. This is true because agencies are often willing to appoint an incumbent employee to a lower permanent civil service title while allowing the employee to continue to serve in the higher provisional or non-competitive title.
Thus, this exam may be of interest to those members currently on any existing civil service exam list, as well as to those members on no list at all.
Finally, of course, the exam is of interest to any college graduate or soon-to-be college graduate seeking entry to the civil service.
Our union will not provide training for the application as the sole requirement is a four year college degree. The exam, however, is a competitive multiple choice exam. So, our Education Department is now preparing to train candidates before the exam.
Executive Director Sheila Gorsky is seeking trainers capable of training on the budget process, or on contracts or on train the trainer. If this is you, or if you know someone who would be excellent, please contact John LaGuardia at the union office as soon as possible.
We are moving as fast as possible to create the training course, but we do need these additional teachers.
If you'd like to listen to this week's newsline as an audio file, click on this link:
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