Legislative Agenda
DOE Contract
CSA is negotiating with the Department of Education and Mayor Bloomberg’s administration to ensure that a new contract agreement is reached before the current contract expires in March 2010. CSA is committed to protecting the rights and benefits of our members while seeking fair yearly salary increases.
Day Care Contract
CSA Day Care members have been working since June 30, 2006 with an expired contract. In January 2008, the city offered a new contract under the condition that Day Care members give up their private health insurance in exchange for a state health insurance plan. Upon further examination, CSA discovered that its Day Care members were ineligible for that state program. CSA has offered its own cost-saving plan that we deem acceptable for our members. However, an agreement has yet to be reached.
Please contact your City Council member and tell him or her that you support publicly-funded Day Care for working class New Yorkers, and you support a fair contract for Day Care Directors and Assistant Directors. Follow this LINK to find your Council Member’s contact information.
School Budget Cuts
Over the past year, our schools have been hit with significant budget cuts. Understandably, these cuts are the result of an extraordinary national and local economic crisis. However, we believe that before taking money away from schools, the Department of Education should makes cuts to the central administration at Tweed: cease to award no-bid contracts, cease to hire unnecessary outside consultants, and limit expensive testing and data collection programs. First and foremost, we must provide students with the essential academic services that they need to succeed.
ELI Professional Development
The Executive Leadership Institute (ELI), a not-for-profit branch of CSA, delivers practical and essential professional development to CSA members, the school leaders of NYC. As the average age and experience of school leaders has decreased, professional development has become more essential. The City Council has agreed to fund ELI’s programs during 2009-2010 as it has done for a number of years. This year, the City Council has provided $620,000.
Retiree Health Benefits
Health benefits for retirees are constantly under attack, and in hard economic times, the pressure to reduce them becomes even worse. CSA’s political team monitors proposals in Albany and in City Hall that might adversely impact retiree benefits and pensions. CSA is also working with the American Federation of School Administrators (AFSA), CSA’s national union, to push for federal health care legislation that will protect current benefits and expand health coverage to all Americans.
Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)
As part of its national political agenda, CSA joins AFSA in supporting the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which, supported by a bipartisan coalition in Congress, would enable working people to bargain for better benefits, wages and working conditions by restoring workers’ freedom to choose for themselves whether to join a union. CSA has encouraged its members to write letters to members of the Senate, to make their voices heard. For sample letters, key facts and information about your local representatives, see below.
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