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Message
from the President
Sisters and Brothers once
again you let your voices be heard. 87% of you participated in the ratification
vote and of those that voted 96% of you overwhelmingly accepted the economic package
that was before you. The Local immediately notified the City of the results and
we are awaiting a copy of the Consent Determination for signatures. Once this
is done we will forward the Determination to the Comptrollers Office for final
sign off and work on firming up the tentative retro pay dates. We will notify
you once we have those dates firmed up.
I would be remiss if I did not thank
each and every one of you for your true expression of Trade Unionism, each of
you along with your families struggled for eight years without a raise yet you
all stuck together and saw this through the entire process. In the end I hope
it was worth the wait. We finally have a fair living wage that we can bring home
to our families and full retro money for every year of the contract. We have begun
the process to open up negotiations for the remaining years and we will inform
you of our progress. Thank you for your patience, you understanding, your support,
and most of all your solidarity. You can all call yourselves true trade unionist.
Congratulations. Results
of Ratification Vote
Ballots Mailed: 840
Ballots
Received: 734
Ballots Counted: 734
Yes - Accepted: 700
No - Rejected:
32
Blank/Void: 2
Total: 734
Local
Negotiates Tentative Agreement
On
Monday evening after an 8 hour bargaining session with the City negotiators the
Local 1320 Bargaining Committee agreed to send the following Tentative Bargaining
Agreement to the Members for Ratification. [See Agreement
(PDF*).] A special Membership
meeting has been set up for Tuesday March 23, 2010. See meeting notice on this
page. More to follow on this late breaking story. Local
Files Motion
On behalf of Local 1320 and its members Mary J.
O'Connell General Counsel for District Council 37 filed a motion to vacate the
city's appeal of our determination with NYS Supreme Court Appellate Division:
First Department on February 10, 2010. For more information, see Notice
of Motion with attachments (PDF*).
As explained to our members at our March 9, 2010 meeting this motion seeks to
have the courts order the city to pay the Comptrollers Ordered Determination or
at the very least move the date of the City's appeal sooner. Mary's
Reply Affirmation (PDF*)
was filed on February 24th and we anticipate an answer from the Courts in appx.
5 weeks from that date. As soon as we hear anything we will inform the shop stewards
in each location and post the findings on the website.
DCAS
Establishes STW List
Please click
here (PDF*) to view the established STW
list for exam # 8106 that was provided to the Local by DCAS.
Based on
the determination of the test Validation Board convened for this examination,
the final key answers are adopted with the following changes to the proposed key
answer and the above list is established effective March 3, 2010, subject to investigation,
drivers license requirement, medical requirement, and substantiation of veterans
and legacy credits. There are 171 eligible's.
Question #8 was changed
from D to B and/ or D.
Some members have contacted the Local 's office
with respect to disqualification notices that they have received. If any member
has any question with respect to the appeal process do not hesitate to reach out
and contact us at 212-815-1320.
City
Files Appeal
At 4 pm on December 22, 2009
one day before the deadline the Local as well as our attorneys were served with
the appeal papers by the NYC Law Dept. Attached is a brief memo from Mary J. O'Connell
General Counsel DC 37 be advised that we are immediately working on our response.
Please
attend the January 12, 2009 General Membership Meeting and hear a full Presentation
from our attorneys on the process. In Unity and Solidarity we will prevail.
For
more information, see memo
from Mary J. O'Connell General Counsel DC 37. (PDF*)
Comptroller
signs final Determination and Order. For more information,
click
here. (PDF*)
Finally
the Pieces of the Puzzle
Come Together
By Jim Tucciarelli
Since 2005 the members of Local 1320 knew that we voted to go to litigation
to get a prevailing rate for our titles but we never knew who the Comptroller
would compare us to or what was the rate of pay for those titles. Finally the
pieces of the puzzle are coming together. After months of preparation we got into
court and made our claims to an Administrative Law Judge for her to make a recommendation,
an independent view of the proceedings as presented by Sean Connelly of Hunts
Point can be found on our web site (see Apples
To Apples PDF*).
After nine
days of testimony and much deliberation and review Judge Alessandra F. Zorgniotti
in her September 10, 2009 decision (see Judge
Zorgniotti's decision PDF*) affirmed
the position taken by the Comptroller to compare STW's to the Operating Mechanic
A title and the SSTW's to the Plant Operators in Con Edison represented by Local
1 and 2. This long awaited decision provided the titles we would finally be compared
to, but there was still some uncertainty as to what the wages and supplements
would be because in the Local 1 and 2 contract there is a minimum and maximum
wage progression which takes 12 years to reach the maximum rate. We knew the titles
but did not know what we would be paid.
On October 20, 2009 the Comptroller's
office issued a summary of the Prevailing Wage Rates and a Summary of the
Prevailing Wage Benefits (see
attached PDF*) which finally posts
the rates of pay for the titles and provides the supplemental benefits. At last
we know who we are compared to and what the rate of pay is.
Sisters and
Brothers the puzzle is almost complete. The Comptroller notified the City and
the Local that they have until November 6, 2009 to provide written comments on
his findings and as of this article our attorney is preparing our response. After
the Comptroller reviews the written comments he will issue His Final Order and
Determination. At that point the Parties have 30 days to appeal the final determination.
We are finally getting to the end of this nightmare. I would like to thank each
and every one of you for your patience and fortitude in seeing this process thru
to the end. I know it has been extremely difficult in trying to maintain a normal
lifestyle for yourself and your families while earning the same wages since 2002.
We will report to you any progress that is made in bringing this issue to a final
resolution.
Local 1320 website
At
Local 1320 it is our goal to provide current, up to date information to our members.
You can now easily access the latest Local 1320 news, meeting notices, benefits
information and much more. You can also contact your union officers directly if
you need assistance. The website will be continually updated, so be sure to check
in and stay on top of the current events at Local 1320.
Call
for submissions
This site is meant to serve all members,
so please let us know about additional features and links which would be useful
to you.
Add your voice to the Local 1320 Newsletter, 'The Open Line.'
Please send articles, stories, letters, cartoons, etc. to Jim Tucciarelli at his
e-mail address listed below. Contact
212-815-1320 or e-mail
1in2bus@msn.com | 
