| OSA Newsline -- September 28, 2020
It was a strange week last week.
The Municipal Labor Committee meetings were held, the Steering Committee on Monday and the full General Membership meeting on Wednesday.
Not for the first time, the Steering Committee was handled okay by using the WebEx program. It is workable for a score or less participants, although not perfect.
The General Membership meeting, with scores of attendees, did not do so well on that platform and there were serious complaints.
The news provided was both good and bad. Good was the fact that the City and State have tentatively agreed on an early retirement package. Bad was the fact that there are no details decided and it will not be raised as legislation until after the November election.
The good news on layoffs was that another week went by with no layoff notices and Harry Nespoli, our Chairperson, has asked the Mayor to delay any layoffs until after the election.
The bad news came from Harry when he stated that he really did not know if the Mayor was going to agree to his request.
The one bit of clear good news was that the annual election for the Steering Committee members was held and our union was chosen to retain our seat on that more selective body.
Finally, the one bit of clear bad news was that the Mayor is furloughing Managerial and Original Jurisdiction employees for five days as a cost saving measure.
This is a tough year.
As we start the third week in September, there is still no word of layoffs, which is good news.
There will be meetings of the Municipal Labor Committee this week. We expect the fiscal crisis to be the main topic, but we do not foresee any major disaster this week.
There was some news of a less exciting sort. Our Welfare Fund picked up Davis Vision for our optical provider in the late 1980's. For over thirty years, we have been very satisfied, on average, with their service.
We did, for two years, try another vendor, but that experience taught us the value of the Davis network. The competing plan was awful. We returned to Davis.
Over the years, if you avoid using designer frames, you can usually get your eyeglasses with no out-of-pocket costs from a Davis provider.
Now, however, there may be change. Davis has been bought by Met Life. The folks at Davis assure us that this is a good thing, and we hope that they are correct. If it leads to more providers in other states, it will be a good thing, but we are always a bit nervous when a new group takes over. We will see.
The past period has included a lot of non-news.
There was no news of layoffs being scheduled - and that was good.
There was information circulating about our efforts to push the City to embrace an early retirement bill, but no conclusions.
There was talk of the State allowing more borrowing but, again, no conclusions.
There was a lot of talk about other ways to avoid layoffs. The rich folks of the Citizens Budget Commission are willing for us to give up some or all of our existing health benefits, and other folks are willing to have us add an extra five hours a week of work for no increase in pay.
More progressive types were suggesting the real estate barons agree to pay more in taxes.
Neither we, the workers, nor the barons are likely to agree to such suggestions.
So, we are back to awaiting news about either layoffs or an early out package, plus extra borrowing approval.
And on that, no news.
The City has chosen to delay layoffs at present. Our suggestion, which they did take, of refinancing our current debt at lower rates, has saved New York City some money.
Will the City do an early retirement offer, or will it rely upon borrowing, or will it reopen the spectre of layoffs? We don't know.
Still, this is a case where the City has to give the unions a 30-day notice prior to laying off workers. Therefore, each day without that notice falls into the category of "no news is good news."
We will post a new Newsline either for Monday, September 14th, or sooner, if we get news.
Meanwhile, Happy Labor Day for all of us.
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