| OSA Newsline -- September 27, 2021
The issue of mandated vaccination is going back and forth in the courts. Also, OSA members face different rules in the Department of Education and NYC Health + Hospitals and the Transit Authority and the Police Department and the Department of Health & Mental Hygiene.
Plus, the rules keep changing.
The one bright note is that, in many places, the union has won a small but important victory. In those areas, a vaccine mandate is in place, but workers who will not comply are put on unpaid leave rather than terminated and health benefits are continued by the employer.
The handling of this return to work period has been chaotic and confusing over all.
Looking for a little certainty in life, members are still calling about the raises due to us. Those raises are still on track for October or November and we will let you know when we know.
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| OSA Newsline -- September 20, 2021
The Mayor's failure to negotiate reasonable details related to the full reopening of City offices created considerable unhappiness last week.
We were able to obtain a procedure for medical and religious exemptions from vaccinations at the Department of Education and will seek to do so in other agencies.
So, on one front we are at war with the City over their failure to negotiate the reopening, but on another front the news is a bit better.
The City has notified us that they have begun implementing our overdue raises. Therefore, last week's prediction of October or November stays on track.
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| OSA Newsline -- September 13, 2021
The unions won one victory last week in that the arbitrator ruled that the Department of Education can not simply remove unvaccinated staff from payroll. Religious and health exemptions must be respected.
Other disputes over the City’s reopening and return to work orders are still being adjudicated.
Meanwhile, amid much confusion and frequently changing rules, most of us are now expected to return to our regular work locations. If we are not vaccinated, weekly testing is mandated and is available at many public sites for free.
Time off for the testing is expected, but the details were not worked out in advance, so this will cause distress in many agencies.
The social distancing rules were recently dropped, but now masks are required for the entire work day without regard for status, vaccinated or not.
The Federal, State and City governments are not coordinating well at all, as each differs from the other two.
We will survive this current failure of leadership by the authorities, but it is absurd that they cannot get their act together.
Meanwhile, our own membership has made at least one clear decision. After tabulating the returned ballots, it is clear that the membership has voted to accept the new contract. There were 1987 votes in favor and 11 opposed. Seven votes were invalid as being returned in un-numbered envelopes and six arrived blank and were counted as abstaining.
So, by a vote of nearly 200 to 1, our members approved the contract and the union notified the City of our decision.
The City payroll section will let us know when the raises are coming. You can figure on the raises and retroactive monies probably in October or November.
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| OSA Newsline -- September 6, 2021
The Mayor has now announced a general return to work set for September 13th. The Municipal Labor Committee responded with anger - and a lawsuit. The Mayor did not negotiate the details of this return to work with us as is required.
At the same time, many union leaders questioned the timing of the return, given the increasing number of COVID cases.
All that said, the fact that most City employees are already back at work at our uniformed agencies makes it clear that the Mayor is serious about the return to the work locations.
The requirement to be vaccinated is now mandated for our Department of Education members and we will be meeting with the Department of Education on that issue. The Municipal Labor Committee is going to court on this one also since the Department of Education may not be willing to offer any exemptions, not even ones based on health issues.
Some members have been calling the union office to ask what happened to the raise for the year 2020? The short answer is that the pattern set by the unions did not call for a raise in 2020. On the other side of the issue, not a single member called to complain that we had received a 3% raise on February 25, 2017 and now a 2% raise on August 25, 2017 and thus two raises in a single year.
Actually, we did not expect any complaints about 2017. The real point is that raises, often, but not always, come one to a year. It just depends upon the pattern set by the contract negotiations.
We may, or may not, receive a raise for 2021 but, even though our current contract is expired, no one has started the next round of negotiations yet.
Finally, a Happy Rosh Hashanah to those celebrating.
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