As all of you are aware, the UFA has reached a tentative Contract Agreement.

The UFOA has a policy not to interfere or voice our objection or approval on another Union contract.

However, I will not refrain from sharing with MY members just what happened to the Uniformed Coalition and clarify for our members if the Coalition is still in place.

The formation of the Uniformed Coalition began with an informational meeting held on December 3, 2006.  A second meeting was held on January 3, 2007.  At our third meeting held on January 10th, 10 Uniformed Unions agreed to form a coalition.  At this point, the UFA was not a member and chose to bargain separately.

We held our first formal bargaining session with the Office of Labor Relations on January 23, 2007.  On January 24th, Steve Cassidy indicated to me that he wanted to join the Coalition.  I invited him to meet with the other Coalition Presidents prior to our next bargaining session scheduled for the following day, January 25th.  At this meeting, Cassidy joined the Uniformed Coalition and I stepped aside as a co-chair to give my seat to Steve Cassidy.  We held another formal bargaining session with OLR that same day.  Commissioner Hanley agreed to expand the Coalition to eleven unions and include the UFA.  The Coalition had another bargaining session on January 30th.

On February 1st, we held a meeting for union Presidents to form strategies for future bargaining sessions.  Harry Nespoli (Sanitation President) suggested that a meeting of the co-chairs take place.  That meeting was scheduled for February 13th.  The co-chairs did meet that day.  Unfortunately, Steve Cassidy could not attend due to a death in his family.  Due to the unavailability of some co-chairs, another meeting could not take place for the next two weeks.  A meeting was scheduled for today, March 7th for Union Presidents only to get us back to the table.  Steve Cassidy confirmed his attendance on February 27th.

The UFA reached a tentative agreement on March 2nd.  None of the other 10 Union Presidents had any knowledge that the UFA was negotiating on their own.  OLR never notified the Coalition that they were no longer recognizing us as a Coalition.

The Uniformed Coalition met today as scheduled.  Why would OLR and the UFA go behind our backs in total secrecy and cut a deal without us?  Perhaps the Coalition was too strong; we were united as Labor Leaders.  Our word was our bond.