| OSA Newsline - September 28, 2022
A reminder that October will feature a number of seminars, mostly on Zoom, on subjects ranging from Math and Statistics to Grievances, Retirement and Public Speaking.
Below we post the flyer we circulated in the August mailing which lets you choose all of the seminars you are interested in on one form. Complete it and email it back to seminars@osaunion.org or fax it to 212-686-1231.
You can also find individual flyers with more information about the seminars under the "Member Services" tab on this website.
|
| OSA Newsline - September 26, 2022
The membership mailing is out and on the website as the September 2022 OSA Newsletter. The membership meeting is this week on Zoom starting at 6pm on Thursday, and we only have one other bit of news.
Our union brother Barry Mandel needs a kidney. Please see the flyer you can download at this link for details. Barry is and was a great guy who worked hard to get union status for the Superior officers of the Traffic division of the New York City Police Department.
If any one of us can help him, it would be wonderful.
If you would like to listen to this newsline as an audio file, please click on this link:
|
| OSA Newsline - September 19, 2022
A mailing is going out this week and should reach you by next week. If you want an early peek, it is already posted as the September 2022 OSA Newsletter on this website.
Not in that mailing is information we got on Friday the 16th. The new health plan rates for actives and retirees effective October 1, 2022 should be in Agency hands soon and this year's open enrollment period will be in November for actives and retirees alike, from the first through the thirtieth. We will try to have those rates on our website earlier than that.
Our OSA Retirees Club (OSARC) had a very informative Zoom meeting last Wednesday. It was attended by over a hundred retirees and the main topic was the Medicare Advantage issue. One key point was the recent City charter change voted upon by the Municipal Labor Committee. That discussion went on for nearly an hour. Some of that may be shown at our next membership meeting.
If you would like to listen to this newsline as an audio file, please click on this link:
|
| OSA Newsline - September 12, 2022
It was a wonderful Labor Day Parade on Saturday -- nice people, nice walk, nice day. We were joined by our brothers and sisters from the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association (MEBA) who are closing in on a contract after a twelve-year-long fight.
We also got some good news last week. The State has approved some of our Health + Hospitals workers to receive the $3,000 bonus for their service during COVID. We will let them know when this is actually being paid out.
Other members who probably should have been listed for the bonus, due to their work near COVID patients, may not be listed and should contact our union's grievance office. We will appeal cases for those members who were left out. However, we will need details of the service they rendered at NYC Health + Hospitals to make the case.
Other news also occurred last week. The Municipal Labor Committee (MLC) voted to recommend a change in the City Charter affecting our health benefit. This issue is still part of the ongoing saga of the implementation of Medicare Advantage for our retired members. While the vote to agree with the City and approve the change was not close, all of the unions expressed concern about how the changes will play out in the years to come.
More cheerfully, our local's representatives at the MLC won a victory. The unions were planning to agree to require newly hired employees to enroll in the HIP HMO program for their first 9 to 15 months of employment. This would save the city 9 million dollars and do no lasting damage since, after the trial period, any new employees who preferred GHI or another plan would be allowed to switch.
There was one huge problem. The HIP HMO optional drug rider is twice as expensive as the GHI CBP drug rider. This only affects workers covered by unions that do not provide prescription drugs through their Welfare Fund, but that means us, specifically, as well as a few other smaller unions.
We protested the higher costs that would be paid by our future members and suggested a solution. Our suggestion was accepted and the new employees will now join HIP HMO but, will only pay the rate of the GHI CBP drug rider if they choose to sign up for the drug option.
That was a nice victory and justifies all the hours our representatives spend going to the Health Technical Sub Committee and the other MLC meetings.
If you would like to listen to this newsline as an audio file, please click on this link:
|