Organizing Correspondence, 1989

Memo to Jim Conti and other NYSUT officials re affiliations since 9/1/87, discussing difficulty of organizing larger units from a time resource perspective, need for organizing teams instead of regional office field staff, with attached list of locals, membership counts, and staff involvement, November 20, 1989; confidential notes of AFT advanced organizing seminar for community colleges, December 21; seminar program and related materials, including faculty questionnaire developed for California community college system and guide for designing an attitude survey; letter from NYSUT director of organizing re contacts at Hudson Valley Community College, October 30; memo to Jim Conti re dues rebate under union shop clauses, with attached memorandum from the Office of General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), October 11; cover memo to organizers re attached text of district court's permanent injunction barring NLRB from implementing its health bargaining unit rule re American Hospital Association (AHA), August 7; related memo, May 25; mock- up of The Nurses Reporter, with cover memo to Jim Conti, May 17; memo to Conti re proposal by retired newspaper reporter and widower of a nurse with many contacts in the NYC municipal hospital system, referred by Westchester ALF-CIO Council, to start a pro-union newspaper for nurses, request for funding, May 9; list of colleges and universities with collective-bargaining agents in 1988, from the Chronicle of Higher Education, July 12; memo to Jim Conti re conversation with a member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association who wanted NYSUT to form a bargaining unit for strength and conditioning coaches, noting futility of the idea, July 6; letter from director of organizing re contact at Winthrop Hospital, June 28; clippings from Labor Relations Week; memo suggesting years' free dues as inducement for successful referral of new members, May 31; letter from NLRB declining review of charge of violation re Regents College Degrees and Examinations because it was determined that the entity was not an employer, May 26; article reporting advice of consultant to hospital administrators re keeping unions out (annual meeting of New England Health Care Assembly), with hand-written annotations and cover note to Jim Conti, April 24; article form Union Labor Report re study of 187 organizers from eight unions, concluding that low self esteem, low trust of others are characteristics of the most successful organizers; budget request for 1989-1990; newsletter of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, published at Baruch College, re unionization among college faculty in 1989, January/February 1989; publication by labor lawyer, "The Supervisor's Handbook on Maintaining Non-Union Status," 1974; pro-union document by labor lawyer, "Government Intermedding Undercutting Union Autonomy: The Labor Lawyer's Challenge," n.d.; text of proposed Assembly bill providing higher reimbursement to hospitals for personnel costs, with cover memo from Jim Conti asking whether NYSUT should support it, March 7; letter from dean of the School of Public Health, New York State Department of Health, re first course in capital district on AIDS transmission for health care workers and emergency responders, February 7; article from Labor Relations Week noting fierce competition among three AFL-CIO unions to organize health care workers, with cover memo from Jim Conti re potential self-defeating consequences, February 17; memos requesting more information about the LaSalle School, for potential organizing efforts, with attached letter of inquiry from director of curriculum development re public school salaries, February; paper by Henry S. Farber, Department of Economics, MIT, "Trends in Worker Demand for Union Representation," December 1988; memo re proposed policy on organizing minimums for size of unit, December 7, 1988, with cover memo proposing meeting, February 9, 1989; press release re training on AIDS for health care workers and first responders, January 16, with seminar announcement; announcement for conference on union representatives in the health-care industry, March 6-7; memo re federal modification in the definition of "reasonable assurance" of continued employment for substitute teachers, need for state legislation to assure coverage of substitutes as public employees under the Taylor Law, impact on organizing potential, January 19; memo to organizers and regional staff directors instructing them to discard all copies of leaflet "Why Pay More for Less" because of an error, plans for reprinting a corrected version, January 12; memo re delivery of authorization cards and other materials to nurses at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, January 26; letter to National Education Association (NEA) Board of Directors from NEA president Mary Hatwood Futrell recommending moratorium on raiding AFSME, SEIU, and IUOE locals, December 1987; letter to NYSUT president Tom Hobart from Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals asking for contracts to review language for a resource file, related memos, October