Around four dozen members of Local 1482 assembled in the Trustees Room at Central on Tuesday night to learn about the proposed economic contract and to have their questions about it answered.  The meeting started with President Eileen Muller giving an overview of DC37's negotiations with the City of New York to reach this agreement (Here's an interesting fact: Robert Linn, the city's chief labor negotiator, is married to Carol Linn, who worked in the Executive Director's Office at BPL before she retired).  Then she summarized the terms of the proposed contract as they are laid out in this document (please print out and share with your colleagues in your branch, division, or department).

The American Arbitration Association (AAA) mailed out ratification ballots early this week.  Many attending Tuesday's meeting reported already having received theirs.  If you believe you are covered by the economic contract, but do not receive a ballot by July 28th, you should phone the AAA at 1-800-529-5218 or email UlerioS@adr.org.

The ballots must be delivered to the AAA by 9:00 a.m. on August 5th.  It is very important that you accurately follow the instructions for filling out and sealing your ballots.  A ballot that hasn't been prepared correctly will be invalid and not counted. 

A great deal of information and clarification was provided at the meeting.  A summary follows below.  However, if you have further questions about the contract or your ballot, you are encouraged to contact President Eileen Muller, any member of the Executive Board, or send an email to local1482@gmail.com.

*  Two Payments.  The $1,000 Ratification Bonus and the Retroactive Wage Increases will be issued as two separate payments.  The ratification bonus will come first, probably within a couple of weeks of the ballots being counted and the contract ratified.  There is no information at this time on when Retroactive Wage Increases will be paid.  

*  The $1,000 Ratification Bonus. This will be payable on the date all valid ballots are counted and the contract is declared ratified.  Taxes will be taken from the $1,000 total.  All Local 1482 members who are on the payroll on the date of ratification will receive the bonus (in other words, don't resign or retire until after the contract is ratified!).  New hires who are on the payroll on the date of ratification will receive the bonus.
            * Why a $1,000 Ratification Bonus. You'll notice that the contract          starts on March 3, 2010.  Yet the first compounded wage increase of 1% doesn't kick in until September 3, 2011.  This Ratification Bonus is the agreement DC37 and the City came to to compensate members for not receiving a wage increase during the first 18 months of the contract.

*  Retroactive Wage Increases.  Members will receive retroactive pay only on the first three wage increases covered in the contract.  These are the compounded 1% wage increases for 2011, 2012, and 2013.  Additions to gross pay (for example, overtime pay) will not be calculated into the retroactive payments or in the pay increases we receive for 2014 and 2015.  Additions to gross pay will increase 3% effective September 3, 2016.   

*  No Change to Health and Welfare Benefits.  It is understandable that members are looking forward to seeing their pay increase and receiving their bonuses and retroactive payments.  However, this provision of the contract is an important victory because it means we still do not have to pay premiums for our basic health benefits.  Unless you elect to purchase riders on your policy, your health care, and the health care of the 120,000 members of DC37, is still free! 

We'll keep you posted as more information becomes available.  Remember, send in your ratification ballots before August 5th!

There has been movement on enacting DC37's economic agreement with the city:

*  The Delegates Assembly at DC 37 overwhelmingly voted to approve the proposed contract on July 8th.  Click here or on the image above to review the terms of the contract as they were presented to members of the Delegates Assembly (Local 1482 The Brooklyn Library Guild has five delegates in the Delegates Assembly).

*  You can read Public Employee Press coverage on the contract agreement here before it is delivered to your homes. DC37 President Lilian Roberts writes of the proposed contract that it is, "...a fair deal in a tough economy."  The followup article states that the independent American Arbitration Association (AAA) will mail ratification ballots to all DC37 members covered under the contract on July 21.  They are due to be returned by 9:00 a.m. on August 5.  Anyone who believes they are covered by the contract but does not receive a ballot by July 28, should phone the AAA at 1-800-529-5218 or email UlerioS@adr.org.

*  Finally, Local 1482 will hold an informational meeting on the contract for its members on Tuesday, July 22, at 6:00 p.m.  It will take place at the Central Library in the Trustees Room.  Please attend to hear about the contract, the ratification process, and to have your questions answered!

DC37 has posted a couple of useful tools on its website to show members what their potential pay increases will be if the proposed economic agreement with the city is ratified. 

The first is an online calculator that estimates your raises and retroactive payments.  Simply enter your bi-weekly gross salary, and you'll be provided a list annual increases through 2016.  You can also see approximate retroactive payments, which are then added to the $1000 one-time payment all members will receive upon ratification.  What is the cash payout you might receive upon ratification?  The calculator will give you a ballpark figure. 

For those who prefer this type of information in a printable document, DC37 has also provided this Potential Back-Pay Table.  It lists a range of annual salaries and you can see annual increases within each range, as well as approximate cash payouts members within those ranges will receive upon ratification.

Please note that the figures provided in these tools are estimates.  They do not factor in overtime or shift differential payments in their formulas.  Both tools indicate that cash payouts will be made to members in September, 2014.  While there is no concrete timeline for ratification yet, it seems as if DC37 is aiming for the end of the summer for the process to be completed!

We'll keep posting updates here, but you can also sign up for DC37's Action Alerts and News to get news on the contract delivered to your email address.

Around midnight on July 2nd, District Council 37 announced it had reached an agreement with the City of New York on a new economic contract.  With over 120,000 members and 50,000 retirees, DC37 is the largest public workers union in New York City.  Local 1482 The Brooklyn Library Guild is one of DC37's 53 union locals, and most of our members will be covered under this contract should it be ratified.

The contract has to undergo a ratification process before it is enacted.  It has already been approved by DC37's Executive Board (Local 1482 president Eileen Muller is a member).  It will next go the Delegates Assembly for consideration (Local 1482 has 5 representatives in the Delegates Assembly).  After that, it will be voted on by the membership through secret ballots delivered in the mail.  A timeline for ratification has not yet been released.

The Local 1482 website will post updates and information on the proposed economic contract as they become available. 

Here is a summary of what is known so far about the agreement:

*    The contract encompasses 7 years and four months, March 3, 2010 to July 2, 2017.  Wage hikes will total 10.41% and members will receive a $1,000 one-time payment upon ratification.  The wage increases break down as follows:
            *  1% retroactive increases for 2011, 2012, and 2013.  1.5% for 2014.                      This will result in a total 4.5% wage increase upon ratification.
            *  2.5% in 2015.
            *  3% in 2016.

*  The agreement calls for a Joint Recruitment and Promotion Study Committee, which will explore means of creating opportunities at higher levels for women and minorities in DC37-covered titles.

*  The contract also creates a plan for DC37 and the City to jointly identify and implement productivity and cost savings.  Money saved through through these efforts will be split evenly between the union and the city.

*  If ratified, the contract will cost the city $1.75 billion over the next four years, a cost that the city plans to offset by $795 million in health care savings, making the final cost $955 million.  The $955 million has already been set aside in the city budget that passed last week.

*  Health and pension plans will remain unchanged.  Members will not see increased costs or loss of services. 
        *  Health care savings will come from an agreement the Municipal Labor              Committee (DC37 is a member) made with the city in May to secure $3.4            billion in health care savings in upcoming city contracts (read more about             the agreement here).
        *  The MLC and the Office of the Mayor will jointly compile a list of health             savings options.  The unions will choose those options which best serve             their members' interests. 

Read more
DC37's News Release, July 2

The next General Membership meeting of Local 1482 is scheduled on Tuesday, June 3 at 7:00 p.m.  It will be held in the auditorium of the Brooklyn Heights branch.  Food and refreshments will be available beginning at 6:00.

The agenda is as follows:

*  Minutes

*  Treasurer's Report

*  President's Report- Including updates on recent progress in collective bargaining, family medical leave, the new timekeeping system, and more.

*  Committee Reports- Including information on Local 1482's Family Picnic on June 8th.

*  Unfinished Business

*  New Business

*  Door Prizes

We look forward to seeing you at the meeting!

Have you made plans for June 8th yet?  If not, bring your family and join your union brothers and sisters in Prospect Park for Local 1482's Annual Picnic!

We'll be set up near the Picnic House, which is located behind Litchfield Villa (near Prospect Park West and 5th St.) and across the Park Drive (map).  The event will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Please share this information with your colleagues!   Go here to print out a copy of the flyer.

National Library Workers Day was established in 2003 and is celebrated on the Tuesday of National Library Week in April.

The Executive Board of Local 1482 would like to thank all of our members for their conscientious work and dedication all year round.  Your efforts, which we know are performed in a climate of persistent understaffing, are the true heart and soul of Brooklyn's libraries.  

We have a tradition of getting a small gift for our members to recognize National Library Workers Day.  This year it is a card sleeve, stamped with the Local 1482 logo.  Use it for your Metro Card or library card.  When you pull it from your pocket or bag, know that your brothers and sisters in Local 1482 appreciate more than anyone that, "Libraries work because we do!"

American Library Association/Allied Professional Association "National Library Workers Day" website. 

Public Libraries, Loved By All Remain Under Attack (AFSCME blog, April 14, 2014)

The next General Membership meeting of Local 1482 is scheduled for Tuesday, April 1st at 7:00 p.m.  It will be held in the auditorium of the Brooklyn Heights branch.  Food and refreshments will be available beginning at 6:00.

At this meeting we will elect three delegates to represent Local 1482 at the 41st Annual AFSCME International Convention, which is being held in Chicago, Illinois from July 14 to 18, 2014.  We will also elect three alternates who will step in should the elected delegates not be able to attend.  Nominations for both delegates and alternates are open to all members of Local 1482.

We are looking forward to seeing you at the meeting!

It is hardly news that unions have been under attack for a number of years.  The latest salvo is a court case that will be decided later this year by the Supreme Court of the United States, Harris Vs. Quinn.  Originating in Illinois, the plaintiff is Pam Harris, a mother who receives Medicaid benefits from the state to provide round-the-clock care for her disabled son.  She and other home-based workers who receive these benefits are required in Illinois to pay union dues to SEIU (Service Employees International Union) Healthcare Illinois-Indiana, even if they do not avail themselves of the services the union provides.  Ms. Harris argues that paying these dues is a violation of her First Amendment rights.  So-called 'Right to Work' groups have embraced this argument and are funding Ms. Harris' suit. 

Enter Laura Reyes, Secretary-Treasurer of AFSCME (the parent union of DC 37).  Last month she published an article in the Huffington Post titled The Sexist Agenda Hidden in Harris v. Quinn where she illustrates how this case attempts to undermine all unions by directly attacking an area where it sees significant growth.

Because the population is aging at a greater rate, the home health care industry is expected to grow enormously in the coming years.  Those who are unionized are much more likely to earn a fair, living wage than those who do not belong to unions.  Oh, by the way, a huge majority of these caretakers are women. 

Reyes doesn't stop with women, however.  She reminds us all that women workers are one of the few demographics where unionization is growing, and that watering down-- or outright stripping away-- the hard-fought victories of any of our constituencies will eventually undermine all of them:

'Let's be candid about why cases like Harris v. Quinn are rising to the Supreme Court. Women make up 45 percent of union membership and will become the majority by 2020. That has anti-worker forces worried. They know that if women enjoy collective bargaining rights and have a strong voice in their workplaces, the inequalities of the past -- which favored their power and bottom line -- will begin to fade away.'  (Laura Reyes) 

March is Women's History Month.  Cases like Harris v. Quinn remind us that we cannot rest on our laurels when it comes to women workers.  Taking the larger view, it is also a cautionary tale for each and every one of us who enjoy benefits and rights gained through our legal ability to bargain collectively with our employers.