LOCAL OFFICERS
With Brenda Leone’s retirement last month, our Local Officers are now as follows: Executive Vice President, Ian Spencer; 1st Vice President, Tammy Witteman; 2nd Vice President, Rosanne Wicks; Treasurer, Sheila Sears; and Secretary, Catrina Leone. Rosanne was approved to fill the 2nd VP position by unanimous consent of the Executive Committee of the Local. Welcome to our team, Rosanne.
QUESTIONNAIRES – ASSOCIATE & PRINCIPAL COURT CLERKS
UCS has informed us that job analysis questionnaires regarding job responsibilities have been sent out to those in the Associate and Principal Court Clerk positions. We do encourage our represented members to complete the surveys and return them prior to the deadline.
NEWLY HIRED EMPLOYEES
When new employees are hired, it is sometimes months before a new employee orientation is scheduled and we, the Union, finally get to meet the new employees. We are notified of new hires and send them a welcome letter, encouraging them to sign up with CSEA for all of the obvious reasons. As a new employee, there are many things to address and learn about, and sometimes filling out the CSEA application doesn’t happen. So we need your help – when you see a new employee within your office, please remind them that they should go to www.cseany.org, click on “Join CSEA” and fill out a membership application – otherwise, they cannot be represented in any matters, Counseling, Disciplinary, etc., cannot vote on their contract, elect their representatives, participate in union dinners or social events, etc. In the last month, we have new employees in Ithaca City Court, Elmira City Court, CAP Parts in Syracuse and Oneida County, Oneida Family Court, Utica City Court, Oswego Family Court, Herkimer Family Court, Syracuse City Court, Broome Supreme and County, and Onondaga Family Court. If you work in one of these locations, please introduce yourself to the new employee and encourage them to take 60 seconds to fill out a membership application online, if they haven’t already done so, and let them know how important it is that they become a member.
CENTRALIZED ARRAIGNMENT PARTS – IMPROPER PRACTICE CHARGE
(Kathy Guild, CSEA Dep. Director of Contract Administration)
CSEA and UCS Labor Relations attended a hearing at the Public Employment Relations Board on October 22, 2018, regarding an Improper Practice Charge filed by CSEA. The charge was filed when a Centralized Arraignment Part (CAP) in Onondaga County, which conducts arraignments seven days a week from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., included Syracuse City Court arraignments along with the Town and Village arraignments. UCS hired private security to cover the CAP, even though they hired two part-time CSEA-represented Court Assistants to work in the CAP. CSEA’s position is that CSEA-represented employees have exclusively handled Syracuse City Court arraignments in the past and it is our bargaining unit work.
A second hearing day will be scheduled sometime in the future, as UCS did not come prepared to present any testimony at the hearing. We will continue to keep you updated regarding this issue.hearing. We will continue to keep you updated regarding this issue.