The Ohio Civil Service Employees Association
Union News / March 16, 2022
union website to see intermittent outages this weekend; member accounts to get upgrade
Upgrades are coming next week to your MyOCSEA account at OCSEA.org. MyOCSEA is the user account that allows OCSEA members to access the union website content behind the firewall, including OCSEA’s benefits. This upgrade will change how OCSEA members update and access their account login information, including passwords. Beginning this Monday, March 21 through Saturday, April 30, all current MyOCSEA users will be required to change their password with the new system. Also as a result of this upgrade, the OCSEA website will have no or limited access during the transition this weekend, March 19-20.
PLEASE NOTE: Members should avoid updating their MyOCSEA accounts until after the update is in effect on Monday, March 21. If you change your password anytime before March 21, you will still be REQUIRED to change it again after the March 21 upgrade.
How will it work?
- Current users, from March 21 through April 30: MyOCSEA users will log into their MyOCSEA account as they typically do using the MyOCSEA email (username) on file with the union and their current password. From there they will follow the prompts to change their password. NOTE: You will need access to your email on file to reset your password.
- Current users, after April 30: MyOCSEA users who haven’t completed this process by April 30 will be no longer be able to log on using their old password. Users will be immediately directed to reset their accounts and passwords using the MyOCSEA email (username) on file with the union.
- New users: If you have never had a MyOCSEA account, simply click on Create Account at OCSEA.org and follow the instructions. It is highly encouraged that you wait to create an account until the Monday, March 21 upgrade.
The upgraded system will also require users to change their password every 90 days, similar to the State of Ohio email system.
Pres. Mabe: Setting the record straight on Freedom Foundation
Read Story here.
Women's history Month: Celebrating our strong women leaders
This Women's History Month we continue to celebrate the women union leaders and activists who make up more than half of OCSEA public employee union members. Women across this country are joining unions in large numbers...and leading unions. Why? Because they want to make a difference, not only for themselves and their families but for their communities who rely on them and every public employee who needs the power of collective bargaining.
This includes one mighty contract enforcer, LaTonya Mitchell, a Therapeutic Program Worker at Twin Valley Behavioral Health Hospital who's been active in the union for more than six years. She’s currently a Steward and the chapter’s Secretary-Treasurer. She said especially since the pandemic, there’s been more of an opportunity to get people involved in the union. “Our chapter is definitely growing,” she said. LaTonya, who does a lot of one-on-ones and outreach, said she’d like to see more focus on state employees’ mental health. “I mean, we are in the mental health sector after all.”
Share LaTonya's story, and the stories of many powerful union women, on Facebook HERE or click below:
Small but Mighty: Cortland Union team shows the power of local bargaining
Many of our OCSEA local
government bargaining teams have been busy over the past year,
negotiating strong contracts on
behalf of their members. While
local and alternative contract
members negotiate directly with
government officials on a smaller
scale, their efforts and victories
are anything but small.
Take the City of Cortland
union team, which held strong
during their contract negotiations this fall. The two-member
union team, made up of city
employees Chris Guesman and
Mike Smith, were up against
many obstacles including rising
health care costs and a public
perception that everyone should
be doing more with less. Despite
this, they held strong and stuck
to the facts and figures. This
allowed them to secure wage
increases for each year of the
contract; gain certification and
training incentives throughout
the life of the contract; and ink
a one-time, lump-sum signing
bonus.
“It’s definitely a game of give
and take. But that’s bargaining,
isn’t it?” said Guesman. This
also means thinking outside the
box, he said. Chris explained that the team weighed their options, especially knowing there
was money coming in from the American Rescue Plan. "So why
not try to use it to incentivize,
right? Everything was on the
table; it didn’t hurt to ask,” said
Chris. Using these federal
funds as leverage, the team
was able to bargain a one-time
signing bonus
that put money directly in the
pockets of their members. Read more about their bargaining victory at OCSEA.org/PEQ.
It's been one year since the American Rescue Plan was passed by Congress. Since then, those federal funds have helped states invest in public workers across the country. But more can be done, says AFSCME President Lee Saunders. Saunders urges AFSCME members to pressure their state and local officials to invest ARP dollars in improving public services and infrastructure and in the everyday heroes who have been risking their lives throughout the pandemic. Read Saunders' recent op-ed in Fortune magazine: How the American Rescue Plan saved the public sector–and proved that investing in workers pays off
