Get to know your Business
Agent today!
Find out how the union
makes a difference on
the job.
 |
Newsline: March 2004
Contract Talks – A Two-Front War for the Union
Haynes: "We Won’t Give Anything Back"
 Negotiations resumed Feb. 10 as members of Local 237’s Housing Division Negotiating Committee
sat down with officials at the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) to discuss the agency’s response to the demands the union put on the table last October. However, NYCHA’s initial proposal met with moans and groans by the union’s negotiating team members.
At the meeting, held at NYCHA’s offices at 250 Broadway, the agency adopted Mayor Bloomberg’s stance of no raises without productivity gains and laid out a proposal that left many members outraged and disgusted. Local 237 President Carl Haynes stunned NYCHA officials when he unleashed a torrent of angry words and threatened to walk out of the meeting.
“He told it like it was,” said Negotiating Committee member Jakwan Rivers, a maintenance worker at the Long Island City Facility. “Carl Haynes sent a strong message to the Housing Authority people. He made me proud.”
Doreen Mack, a Housing Manager at St. Nicholas Houses in Manhattan, said NYCHA’s offer “was quite depressing.” She added: “Even with the financial situation, what they are offering is callous and a total disregard for the employees at the Housing Authority who have been cooperating with the agency all along and who give every time they are asked to give. It’s very demoralizing and disheartening because we come to work every day, and do much more than they pay us for. Like someone else said, we give everything and we’re not getting much in return.”
Following the talks, Haynes told members to stand firm and not be discouraged. “Contract negotiations are never easy, but we’ve always generally had cordial relations with the Housing Authority,” Haynes said.
Commenting on both the Housing and Citywide negotiations, Haynes said: “It’s clear that the city and the Housing Authority are not ready to bargain seriously. Both offers are a joke and an insult to the membership. They want to wipe out everything we have negotiated and won over many years.” Then he added, “No way!”
|
The Housing Authority’s Demands,
Point by Painful Point
Increases
1. Any future wage increases shall be funded entirely through prospective productivity savings. All prospective productivity shall be the result of an
agreed upon bilateral program established in conjunction with the union and must achieve measurable/quantifiable savings.
Schedules
2. The normal rate of pay shall apply for a standard work week, which shall be comprised of any five (5) consecutive work days completed over any
seven (7) consecutive calendar days.
3. Summer hours shall be eliminated.
Salaries & additions
4. Eligibility for collective bargaining increases shall be contingent upon a satisfactory performance evaluation.
5. New hires shall move through the Salary Schedule “B” steps. Upon completion of one (1) year of Authority service at Step 3 of the Schedule “B” salary, new hires shall be placed at the next higher salary step of Schedule “A”. Salary Schedule “B” steps shall be frozen at the rates of pay contained in the expired agreement.
6. For all employees covered under the Step Pay Plan, progression through the salary steps shall occur only after the employee has demonstrated
satisfactory performance.
7. There shall be a payroll lag of five (5) additional days.
8. Eligibility for any fifteen (15) year longevity shall be based upon completion of a total of fifteen (15) years of continuous Authority service actively
served in covered bargaining unit titles.
9. Shift differential pay shall be eliminated.
Health/Pension/Welfare
10. Any agreement reached between the City of New York (“City”) and Teamsters’ Local 237 on a demand submitted by the City on health insurance,
pension/retirement system or welfare fund matters shall also apply where applicable and/or as adapted to the Authority.
11. All overtime pay shall be calculated based on actual time worked per week.
12. There shall be no minimum credit of hours for recall from home.
Meal Allowance
13. Meal allowances shall be eliminated.
Transfer/Movement/Assignment
14. For voluntary, lateral inter-location employee transfer:
a. Employees covered under the standard transfer procedure shall be considered for transfer provided a minimum of thirty (30) months of service is performed in title at the location from which transfer is requested, and for Assistant Housing Managers and Assistant Resident Building Superintendents, a minimum of
thirty-six (36) months of such service.
b. The Automated Transfer List System (ATLS) shall be the only method utilized for voluntary movement between locations, subject to a maximum backfill.
15. a. Assignment to any position, in any title, at any location, shall be made at the sole discretion of the Authority.
b. An employee who has been on sick leave may return to the last location at which such employee worked, provided he or she returns to work within twenty (20) calendar days after commencement of sick leave.
Time & Leave
16. Any agreement reached between the City of New York (“City”) and Teamsters’ Local 237 on a demand submitted by the City on accrual or payment of annual or sick leave shall also apply where applicable and/or as adapted to the Authority.
17. For employees on fixed schedules:
a. Lateness in excess of five (5) minutes shall be charged to annual leave for the full period of such lateness on a minute-for-minute basis.
b. Lateness penalty provisions shall apply to employees who exceed twelve (12) latenesses in a consecutive twelve-month (12) period, or a ratio greater than one (1) time per month.
18. For employees participating in the flex-time program:
a. No grace period allowed. Lateness shall be charged to annual leave for the full period of lateness on a minute-for-minute basis.
b. Lateness penalty provisions shall apply to employees who exceed twelve (12) latenesses in a consecutive twelve-month (12) period, or a ratio greater than one (1) time per month. Total minutes late shall be rounded upward in quarter-hour (1/4) intervals.
19. Employees who donate blood during working hours, through participation in official NYCHA blood drives, shall be granted three (3) hours of compensatory time in addition to the time actually used to donate blood.
20. Workers’ Compensation
Supplementation of statutory Workers’ Compensation benefits by use of annual leave shall be eliminated.
21. Disciplinary Penalties
When an employee is subject to a disciplinary suspension the Authority, in its sole discretion, may require the employee to work at 70 percent of the employee’s rate of pay for the period of suspension in lieu of the employee being suspended without pay.
22. Adjustment of Grievances
The parties grievance procedure shall be amended as follows:
a. Grievances shall be limited to disputes regarding the application or interpretation of contract terms or written rules or regulations regarding terms and conditions of employment.
b. Amend the steps of grievance process and time limits.
c. Complaints regarding out-of-title or out-of-level work assignments shall be filed with the Director of Human Resources with a right to appeal to arbitration.
23. Authority Property
The Authority may recoup directly from wages the full replacement cost of equipment issued or otherwise entrusted to employees by the Authority which is lost, damaged or destroyed by such employees, or allowed by such employees to be lost, damaged or destroyed by others, either purposefully or otherwise, or that is otherwise unaccounted for. This provision shall not be construed to concern the wear and tear or depreciation attributed to normal and authorized
use of such equipment.
24. Union activity / Business
a. All paid release time for union activities shall be eliminated.
b. All ad hoc release time for union activities shall be without pay.
Management’s Rights Clause
25. The following provision shall be added to the parties’ agreement:
This agreement is the result of collective bargaining negotiations between the New York City Housing Authority and the City Employees Union, Local 237, IBT., which have been conducted under the requirements of the NYC Collective Bargaining Law. The provisions of this Agreement supersede all conflicting policies and directives of the New York City Housing Authority and may be changed only through the mutual agreement of the Authority and the Union. All terms and conditions of employment not explicitly covered by this agreement shall be subject to the New York City Housing Authority’s sole direction and control and shall not be the subject of negotiations until the commencement of negotiations for a successor agreement.
|
|
|
President Carl Haynes and the union’s negotiating team facing the Housing Authority’s team at the contract talks on Feb. 10.
Local 237 President Carl Haynes telling it like it is at the Citywide contract talks on March 2.
|
