Vol. 1, No. 9
2011
“STAND UP and FIGHT for YOUR RIGHTS”
Friday, September 30, 2011
Join, Stop the Layoffs, Protest Rally, Tue. Oct. 4th City Hall 4PM
President’s
Desk
Local Events
President Behrouz Fathi and Local officers met on Monday with David
Paskin, Associate Director, DC 37 Research & Negotiations, to discuss ways to
update/upgrade job descriptions of various titles to better reflect current
responsibilities. Associate Engineering Technician, Radio and Television Operator,
and Television Equipment Operator are some of the titles that require major
overhaul. Also discussed was the impact on our members in City Planning and
at HPD of the loss of federal grant money to community-based projects.
Also on Monday, the Local’s Budget Committee met to finalize the 2012
draft budget for presentation to the Executive Committee on October 5th and later
on to the Delegates for preliminary discussion on October 26. At DC 37’s
Delegate meeting on Tuesday, participants were informed that the arbitration
hearing on the 2010 snowstorm will take place on October 24, 2011. Delegates
were also informed about the 0.1% additions to gross money settlement that will
add to longevity and service increments and other items.
On Wednesday, OCME (Chapter 39) President Michael McCasland met
with President Fathi about the problems faced by members in the Criminalist title,
where low salaries and heavy workloads cause people to leave for private sector
jobs. School Construction Authority (Chapter 5) held its monthly meeting and
many Local 375 officers and grievance reps were in attendance. Sanitation
(Chapter 33) met on Friday, and members’ questions were answered by Chapter
President Naz Anderville and Local officers.
Grievance update
This week one of our Landscape Architects at the Parks Department
(Chapter 7) won his out-of-title grievance at his Step II hearing. At the
Department of Buildings (Chapter 17), we were able to successfully stop the
agency from giving our Estimator members out-of-title work that belongs to
members of another local. Elena Mora, grievance rep for Chapter 3 (HHC)
attended a Workplace Violence Prevention training session along with the Chapter
President Khursheed Siddiqi and 2nd Vice President Margaret Healey.
Thanks to the persistence of DC37’s Safety and Health Department, a state
inspector was sent to review Harlem Hospital’s chemistry lab, which will now be
forced to remediate a number of problems that our members had complained
about.
Members sometimes call after they notice a problem with their paycheck.
The good news is that we can fix such problems. The bad news is that
sometimes the error is in the agency’s favor – yes, they do overpay employees,
believe it or not, and they have the right to collect such overpayments going back
six years. Contractually, there is a limit for recoupment of money by the agencies.
We also have experience with members reviewing their status with payroll and
discovering that they are being underpaid.
So, make sure that payroll is getting things right: 1) Correct time in
your bank -- SL, AL, holidays, comp time; 2) Additions to gross (longevity or
service increment, which depends on your title); 3) Shift or assignment
differential; 4) Overtime payments and/or comp time. All members receive the RIP
(recurring increment payment).
If you have any doubts about the accuracy of your check, make sure
you question it with payroll. And if you still aren’t satisfied, call the Local. Our
contract gives us the right to file a grievance for payroll errors.
Dear member,
On September 27th, the results of
the vote by the members of the Public
Employees
Federation
(PEF)
were
announced. In a historic development, the
union’s membership rejected the contract
agreement which included major givebacks
in exchange for a pledge of no-layoffs.
More
than
70%
of
the
members
participated in the voting.
Reactions to the results have been
mixed among unions throughout the state.
Governor Cuomo has been seeking $75
million in savings from wage and benefit
cuts in order to avoid laying off 3500 state
workers, yet has refused to extend the
“Millionaires Tax” which brings in $5 billion
in revenue to the state annually.
Meanwhile, upstate New York is suffering
from crisis levels of unemployment, as is
the whole country.
The PEF has asked the Governor
to go back to the table to reopen
negotiations in order to stop the layoffs.
Meanwhile, Local 372, one of our
sister unions here in DC 37, is also fighting
against proposed layoffs of 700 school
aides. These cuts are courtesy of Mayor
Bloomberg, whose administration has
wasted billions of taxpayer dollars on
projects such as CityTime, NYcaps, and the
DOE FTA.
Our sisters’ and brothers’ struggle
to stop these layoffs is our fight too, not
only because they are union members, not
only because they care for our children,
but also because of concern about the
health of the nation’s economy, which
needs more jobs not fewer.
I strongly request that you come
to the solidarity rally with Local 372 on
Tuesday, Oct. 4th at City Hall at 4-6pm.
See you there,
In Solidarity
Behrouz Fathi, President
212 (815) 1375
Local 375, DC37, AFSCME, AFL-CIO125 Barclay Street, Room 600, New York, NY 10007Fax: 212 (815) 7533
www.civilservicetechnicalguild.orgEmail: techguild@local375.orgFacebook: local375@groups.facebook.com