LSSA has fielded its team to bargain a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with LSNY. The team members are:

Bruny, Tanya and Jim are veterans of past LSSA bargaining teams bringing important experience to the table. Nataki has served on the LSSA Executive Committee since February 2004 just after the LSNY Admin. staff were formally brought into the union. Micheal, Bill and Diana have been active union members in their shops and as Delegates. Diana, who is transitioning between LSNY Bronx and the Harlem office of the new Manhattan consolidated program, promises to bring the views of the growing numbers of Social Workers in LSNY into the process.

Our present CBA, which expires on June 30th, was finalized just a few hours before a strike deadline on October 15, 2003 after more than 48 hours of continuous bargaining. This time around LSNY claims that they desire a less contentious process and to come to a new agreement prior to the expiration of our present CBA and without a strike deadline. Of course this is what management's team told us at the commencement of bargaining in 2003 yet they made no significant movement on any major issue until months later just a few days before the strike deadline. This is not, however, beyond the realm of the imagination. The bargaining at MFY was completed in February without a strike deadline and with much less acrimony than thought possible after the nine week strike there just two years ago.

A major issue this year, as in prior years, is sure to be the cost of our health insurance and who bares that cost. In 2003 management demanded that employees pay two percent of their salary toward the health insurance premium. While we were able to resist a premium contribution our co-pays for both in-network doctor visits and prescription drugs both increased and our members at MFY went on strike largely over health insurance issues. LSNY management had expressly stated that they would again insist that we pay part of the health insurance premium out of our own paychecks but they have become a bit more vague about it since the MFY shop made clear that they would strike over the issue if management pursued it. (MFY management withdrew it from the table during the first bargaining session last November).

Our Members' Surveys that we use to determine what issues are important to the membership and what our demands will be this year will go out to the membership by the end of this week (March 31st). Please fill them out and get them back to the union by the deadline. Our demands must then be ratified at a membership meeting before being served upon management. Our target date for our first bargaining session with management is the end of April.

LSSA presented its plan for alternatives to the layoff of five bargaining unit staff members at Bedford Stuyvesant Legal Services only to be told that the layoffs would go forward pending the board's receipt of a new "strategic plan" from Bed-Stuy's management and board in mid May. The union's plan addressed the programs five year downward spiral of lost funding, growing deficits and shrinking staff and services.

Specifically our plan calls for the dismissal of the program's three remaining managers including its project director, Camille Cooke, and the abolition of its dysfunctional board of directors. The plan then proposed the consolidation of the program with South Brooklyn Legal Services which could immediately provide the staff with supervisory support. The money saved by the dismissal of the three managers could be used to hire a qualified managing attorney and an additional staff attorney for the office. The office in the community would be maintained.

The layoff plan, in contrast, is not a plan at all but rather a continuation of the crisis that the union asked the LSNY board to address more than two years ago. The LSNY board rejected Camille's initial plan that just called for staff layoffs to balance the program's budget on paper. The board instead insisted that the layoffs be deeper than originally envisioned, laying off four paralegals and the process server, and requiring that Bed-Stuy then hire two new attorneys. While the LSNY board seemed to be responding to the union's warning that layoffs would result in the program being unable to comply with their remaining contracts and grants in turn resulting in the continued loss of still more funding it in fact addressed none of Bed-Stuy's real problems. Two attorneys, the housing unit director and a staff attorney, left in 2005 after the layoff of two support staff members and the reduction of the process server to three-fifths time. The addition of two new attorneys still resuls in a substantial loss of casehandling capacity over a year ago especially after the layoff of the casehandling paralegals. Further, these new attorneys would, like the remaining three staff attorneys, have to practice in multiple areas of law without any competent supervision in most cases. The leadership of this program has proven unable to develop any new sources of revenue in the last five years while losing virtually all their other private grants and contracts. There is no explanation whatsoever as to how these trends, loss of funding, increasing deficits and shrinking staff, will be reversed.

This program needs to be turned around and requires new and qualified leadership in order to do so. Even if the current Bed-Stuy board was committed to finding a qualified new project director, and there is no indication that they are, it would take many months or even years to get the right person in place while the crisis continues to worsen. Only the union's plan addresses the immediacy of this crisis, preserves bargaining unit jobs and holds accountable those who have been unable to run this program. Merging Bed-Stuy with South Brooklyn puts managers with a track record in charge, maintains services in the short run and signals government and private funders that additional funding will be effectively used in serving the community. The right thing for the LSNY board to do is act now. The right thing for the Bed-Stuy management and board to do is to step aside for the good of the program and community.

Five union members at Bedford Stuyvesant Legal Services received notices that they would be laid-off at the beginning of April. This follows one bargaining unit layoff a year ago and one member's schedule being reduced to three-fifths time. In addition each staff member took eight unpaid furlough days in 2005 to avert even more layoffs a year ago. These savings, in combination with new UIB Project money from LSNY and unexpected personnel savings due to one staff member going on leave last March and another resigning in October should have resulted in a large surplus for the year but somehow the program ended the year with a negative change in assets of - $116, 388.

After initial negotiations with management we learned that after laying-off four paralegals and the process server, leaving only a receptionist and no other clerical or administrative support staff, management planned to hire two new attorneys. Management's logic was that the program would not be able to attract new sources of funding with its three remaining staff attorneys. This "plan" would add to Bed-Stuy's deficit by the end of 2006 rather than turn the program around. Why LSNY believes Bed-Stuy's management and board will be able to attract new revenue is the biggest mystery or all. Since Camille Cooke became Project Director in December 2000 the program has attracted no new revenue on its own (the only new funding has been through LSNY) and the program has had a operating deficit each and every year turning a large surplus into a net deficit.

In response LSSA has developed a plan to prevent layoffs and address the problem of the program's ineffective leadership. While the proposed solution seems drastic it is in response to a now long history of ineffective leadership and diminishing services at the program. On February 22nd the Delegates Assembly approved a plan calling for the LSNY Board of Directors to terminate the managers at Bed-Stuy, dismiss its board and consolidate the program into South Brooklyn Legal Services. Under the union's plan the bargaining unit employees would be retain as would the office based in the community. Supervisory and administrative support would be provided from South Brooklyn in the short term. Savings from the management layoffs could be used to hire a managing attorney and a new staff attorney while retaining the casehandling and support capacity of the five bargaining unit members that Camille plans to layoff. As part of South Brooklyn the program would have a new credibility with funders as well as management with the capability and experience to attract no funding.

While the staff at Bed-Stuy, as well as the union's leadership, is saddened to have to advocate for the demise of Bed-Stuy as an independent program there seems to be no other viable alternative that will prevent this round of layoffs and stem the continued downward spiral of this program. It is more important to maintain and build the staff that does the work of providing sorely needed legal services in the Bedford Stuyvesant community.

Starting today the LSSA News has become a "blog". Rather than issuing periodic "issues" of the News the new format allows us to post entries, stories, pictures, whatever, whenever the urge arises. The plan is that the content will be more timely, getting the news out to the membership while it's still news. The staff here at the LSSA News (jim) invites the membership to submit items for posting. When new content is posted an LSSA E-Bulletin will go out to the membership with a link to the website. Other ideas for the News and/or the website are, of course, welcome.

By: Bernadette Jentsch

On February 9, 2006, MFY union members unanimously ratified a three year contract renewing and extending the CBA, which expired on December 31, 2005.

Contract highlights include a $1,000 "signing bonus" with a 2.5% increase for the first year, 2.75% increase for the second year, and a 3.25% increase for the third year. MFY will also contribute $500 per member to the 403(b) retirement plan in the first year and any savings in actual healthcare costs per member for the subsequent years. Health care benefits remain intact since the LSSA team made it clear during the initial meeting that any health care givebacks would trigger a strike. A new section was also added to the CBA providing an option for part-time employment prior to retirement.

Also of note is what we kept out of the contract. MFY demanded that they be able to deny temporary employees union protection and benefits like health insurance for up to 12 months. Management also wanted to limit the number of sick days employees could accumulate which would have been a disaster for long term employees struck with major illnesses. The team stood firm against these demands.

Unlike the last round of bargaining, which resulted in members going on a nine-week strike, in this round, bargaining was markedly smoother and swifter. A final agreement was achieved within roughly three months and without a strike deadline. The LSSA team's approach proved to be a winning strategy. Congratulation to the "Team", Sarah Fulton, Amy Carroll, Bernadette Jentsch and LSSA President, Jim Provost, with special thanks to Gordon Deane and Ellen Wallace for their invaluable assistance. Let's not forget the rest of the MFY shop who worked on back-up committees and stood resolutely with their team making this a true "Union" victory.

On February 7th members Lynn Ventura (Harlem), Pavita Krishnaswamy and Rebecca Velez (South Brooklyn) hopped on a train to DC with LSSA President Jim Provost to lobby Congress to preserve Ryan White funding for services, including legal services, that our clients depend upon. The four joined UAW members from around the country at the National UAW CAP (Community Action Program) Conference in lobbying on a host if issues effecting working Americans.

Ryan White funding provides both medical and ancillary services to people living with HIV and AIDS. Those ancillary services, such as housing, case management, substance abuse treatment, permanency planning and legal services are crucial in stabilizing our clients' lives so that they are able to comply with their medication regiments, slow the spread of the infection and live longer lives. The Bush Administration, however, proposes to change the Ryan White CARE Act in two important ways. One, they would earmark 75% of funding to "direct medical services" (currently about 50% of Ryan White funds are used for this purpose both in NYC and nationally) and two, they would use a "severity of need" analysis so that funds would be targeted to localities that do not dedicate meaningful local resources to the care of people living with HIV and AIDS. While these might not seem like bad ideas they would, in effect, de-fund most ancillary services, including legal services, and send the lion's share of the funding to states that have not dedicated local resources to fighting the infection.

Currently, New York and other large metropolitan areas receive a large share of Ryan White funds because this is where most people living with the infection are. Providers in New York have developed programs that not only make medical treatment available but also make it possible for people living with HIV and AIDS to stabilize their lives, comply with complex medication regiments and not spread the infection to others. While additional funds are sorely needed to address the spread of HIV and AIDS around the country it makes no sense to dismantle model programs that have worked in slowing the spread of the infection and enhancing both the quality and length of our client's lives.

The LSSA lobbying team met with congressional staffers for Hillary Clinton and Eliot Engel that are taking part in meetings on the Ryan White Reauthorization and visited other members of Congress who are players in the process. We received invaluable assistance from Barbara Somson, Deputy Director of the UAW Legislative Department in Washington, Dwight Loines, Political Director of UAW Region 9A and Ellen Wallace our National President.

By: Meghan Faux, Scott Sommer and Nicole Salk

Margaret Zeigler retired at the end of December 2005 after 36 years of service. Margaret began working as a secretary in legal services' Fort Greene office in March 1969 then moved to South Brooklyn Legal Services to work in the Family Law Unit in 1971. Margaret was also a founding member of LSSA and thus NOLSW. She was a stalwart and dedicated union member, serving as shop delegate, turning out for every rally, picket, meeting and solidarity action. She went on lobbying trips on behalf of the program and the union and was a member of the LSSA Hardship Committee during the strikes in 1991 and again in 1993. Margaret received her college education through the union education program.

Margaret has the incredible ability to be a calming force in any crazy situation and to lift one spirits regardless of the adversity they may have been facing. Her dignity and grace was not only a positive force in our shop, but also, when reinforced by her gentle manner, totally disarming of management when they least expected it. Margaret was loved by her coworkers and is sorely missed. She is also well known (and much appreciated) for her delicious home-made carrot cake and zucchini bread.