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Today we received the Decision and Order from the Appellate Division regarding the SSSA"s appeal of the Mother Clara Hale Interest Arbitration.  The Court again denied their petition to vacate the arbitration award.   We hope that the SSSA will come to the conclusion that the award will stand and it would be futile to continue to appeal this decision.

On March 2, 2015, the SSSA filed a petition in the Supreme Court of New York to vacate the Mother Clara Hale Arbitration Award.  Today, Supreme Court Justice, Debra Silber denied their petition to vacate the award.

On December 17th the parties appeared before the Arbitrator to clarify and discuss issues that were not addressed in the original arbitration award.  If there was any doubt in the original award that MCH depot is an OA depot the supplemental award CONFIRMS that MCH is an OA DEPOT!

This decision is a historic victory for our Union because the award confirms our position that with the closing of 126^th Street Depot all of the supervisory work in Manhattan should become TSO represented work.  The decision also recognized the concerns raised by the SSSA in that displacing long-term employees will negatively impacted those employees by not allowing them to continue to work in Manhattan.

The outcome of this award is dramatically different from where we began in this dispute.  Initially, the Authority took the position that they were going to transfer 126^th Street work and the SSSA supervisors into MCH depot, as well as them retaining all of their Road Control positions. This caused us to file two grievances.  We then attempted to negotiate a resolution where we would eventually get all of the SSSA’s work in Manhattan.  Throughout these negotiations, it was our strategy to be reasonable and flexible.  After months of negotiation, we failed to reach an agreement, but we did succeed in getting the Authority to abandon their plan to transfer the 126^th Street work into MCH depot.  Once we got this agreement from them, we then agreed to a tri-lateral arbitration that would be heard by Howard Edelman.

It is clear from his decision that our strategy worked to our advantage in this proceeding, and as a result of this award, the Authority will no longer hire any new TA supervisors to work in Manhattan.  Our Union will eventually gain nearly 60 additional jobs for our members, and for the first time in the history of this great Organization, we will represent all of the supervisory work in Manhattan!

If you would like a copy of the award, please contact the Union office.

In the November general election, you will be asked to vote on whether or not New York should hold a convention to change our state constitution.  A Convention would be a boondoggle for politicians and corporate lobbyists to take away your wages, pensions, benefits and rights.  And to make matters worse, you’d have to pay the price tag—hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.

A Constitutional Convention would be controlled by well-funded special interests and career politicians who would dominate the process and take advantage of the system to benefit themselves at your expense.

Corporations and their lobbyists will use a Convention to weaken workers’ rights and protections.  Pensions, prevailing rate in construction,  collective bargaining, and care and benefits for injured workers could all be on the chopping block. 

It’s a financial boondoggle that could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and invite corruption by enabling entrenched Albany politicians to make up to $80,000 on top of the taxpayer-funded salaries they already receive.

With no timeline to complete their work , there could be no end in sight.  Albany politicians, their friends and insiders could continue enriching themselves at the taxpayers’ expense for years.

Your union urges you to VOTE NO on November 7th!!

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