|
Public Employee Press
Bargaining News
Local leaders sharpen their negotiating skills
The union held an orientation March 8 for new members of
the DC 37 Negotiating Committee and others who felt they could use a refresher
course on the collective bargaining process.
We are going into a challenging new round of bargaining talks, so
we wanted to bring everyone up to speed on the negotiations process,
said Dennis Sullivan, director of the DC 37 Research and Negotiations
Dept.
Twelve local union presidents and some staffers attended the intensive
evening session at union headquarters.
The presidents of the 55 union locals make up the DC 37 Negotiating Committee,
which puts together the unions bargaining demands, helps craft the
negotiating strategy and participates in talks with the city.
As someone who is new to contract negotiations, I appreciated the
opportunity to learn more about the process, said Fred Ricci, president
of the Dept. of Environmental Protection Supervisory Employees Local 1322.
We were presented with a lot of material, and the training should
help me be a more productive member of the committee.
Sullivan welcomed the participants to the orientation and provided an
overview of the evenings agenda before turning over the meeting
to Research and Negotiations Dept. staffers, including Associate Director
Evelyn Seinfeld, Sr. Assistant Director David Paskin and Assistant Directors
Vilma A. Ebanks and Barbara Terrelonge.
The topics included bargaining structure (citywide bargaining, economic
bargaining, unit bargaining and issue-specific bargaining), subjects of
bargaining (mandatory, non-mandatory and prohibited matters), and the
collective bargaining process (demands, negotiations, resolution and impasse
procedures).
It was good to hear whats expected of us, said Local
2627 President Robert D. Ajaye, who is participating in union-wide negotiations
for the third time and has worked on three City University of New York
unit contracts. Now everyone is clear about the ground rules of
bargaining and has realistic expectations about what we can push for and
achieve.
| |