Calling all MAT Leaders and Stewards: Join us for Labor Notes' Conference: Jun 12-14 in Chicago!

After you RSVP for the Local (on this page, so that we can support you), take the next two steps even if you aren't 100% you can attend:

1. Register with Labor Notes: Early Bird registration is $165, and fully refundable until May 29
2. Book a hotel room: The closest hotels are filling up fast, and you don't have to pay anything to reserve a room (can typically be canceled without charge until early June)

Join thousands of union members, officers, and labor activists
These are the rank and file on the front lines in our workplaces and our communities, organizing new workers and agitating together. Meet troublemakers from across the country and around the world.

Choose from more than 200 meetings and workshops
They include creative organizing tactics, beating apathy, running for local union office, winning contract campaigns, bargaining over technology, assertive grievance handling, and reviving the strike.

Organize with others in your union, industry, or campaign
Face-to-face meetings to share tactics and swap notes are the heart of the Labor Notes Conference. Join an existing industry, union, or caucus meeting—or contact us to set one up.

Workshops will include:

• Beating Apathy
• Steward Rights
• Running for Union Office
• Assertive Grievance Handling
• Winning First Contracts
• New Organizing
• Race and Labor
• ...and more!

Local 768 is here to support you attending!

Local 768 plans to provide support for a limited number of members to attend the conference. Those members will be eligible for reimbursement of the following expenses:

• Registration: $165 early-bird registration (Register today even if you aren't 100% sure you can attend - The registration fees are fully refundable up until May 29th)
• Meal allowance: $50 / day (up to 3 days)
• Travel: Standard economy class flights will be fully reimbursed. PLEASE INCLUDE TRAVEL PROTECTION/INSURANCE (typically $25-50 extra)
• Accommodations: Hotels don't charge to reserve a standard room, so interested members should immediately make reservations under their name, with their credit card. The Local will then take over payment responsibility as we get closer to the conference. See the Labor Notes .hotel info page here

We are preparing for discussions regarding Mayor-elect Mamdani's plans for reorganization of mental health services, particular as they relate to Mobile Crisis Teams, NYPD Co-Response Teams, B-HEARD, ACT Teams and outpatient Behavioral Health Clinics. Unfortunately, the membership information we receive from H+H and DOHMH does not include any information regarding your assignment, so we will only know if you tell us... Please indicate your primary assignment on this page. 

The Local 768 Election Committee oversaw the elections for the following officers of four Chapters over the last few months:

• Dental hygienists & assistants: Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary
• Licensed Creative Arts Therapists (LCAT): Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary
• Medical Record Specialists: Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary
• Public Health Advisors and Assistants: Vice-Chairperson (Runoff)

For each chapter*, nominations were solicited and all nominees were verified as eligible candidates and provided with an opportunity to decline the nomination if they so chose.

* Except for PHA, which held a runoff election and had already nominated candidates

Nominations are open for leadership of the following Chapters to be formed:

• Dental Assistants & Hygienists
• Licensed Creative Arts Therapists (LCAT)
• Medical Record Specialists

Nominations will now be accepted through February 25. After nominations, we will schedule an election to be held online and by mail as soon as possible if more than one nominee is confirmed for any of the positions listed below.

Use this form to submit nominations for the leadership positions of Chapters. Our constitution requires that each chapter that is established has chapter leaders elected by the members of that chapter

• Chair: Primary leader, responsible for scheduling and chairing meetings
• Vice-Chair: Assists the Chair as needed
• Secretary: Responsible for taking minutes of meetings, maintaining records and assisting in communications

To learn more about the roles and responsibilities for these positions, please visit our About->Chapters page here.

The Local 768 Election Committee oversaw the elections for the following officers of four Chapters over the two few months:

• Social Work Chapter: Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary
• Public Health Sanitarians: Run-off election for Vice-Chairperson
• Public Health Advisors and Assistants: Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary
• DCWP Inspectors: Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary

For each chapter, nominations were solicited and all nominees were verified as eligible candidates and provided with an opportunity to decline the nomination if they so chose.

The Local 768 Election Committee oversaw the election of our delegates to the 2024 AFSCME Convention. We used an election vendor, ElectionBuddy, for this election.

After nominees were verified as eligible candidates and provided with an opportunity to decline the nomination if they so chose, the election began on June 19th, 2024 and concluded on July 11th, 2024. Per AFSCME constitutional requirements, all eligible voters were sent notice (via USPS mail, as well as email and text message where that information was available) of how to vote online, or if they chose, how to request a paper ballot. Each voter was asked to vote for up to 7 candidates. For delegate elections, the 7 candidates with the most votes are deemed elected. In this election, those are:

• Ryan McGuire
• Tishana King
• Lisa Blackett
• Charlton Smith
• Anthony Scruggs
• Tracey White
• Dorcas Bethel

Building Solidarity and Women’s History: March 2024            

In this issue:

• Uniting for a City That Works for All New Yorkers

• Organize, Fight, Win

• Bargaining update: Bargaining Survey 

• Join Us: AFSCME International Convention

• Leaders Building Leaders: Labor Notes + Local 768

• Member Spotlight: Education + Citizenship

• Join Us: April 10 Membership Meeting 

• Contribute! Share your story

At our Social Work Chapter meeting Wednesday Sept 13, we outlined a new strategy for our concerns regarding how H+H has calculated the retroactive base pay raises implemented as part of our latest contract. The bottom line is that other agencies of the NYC government are calculating these raises differently, in accordance with NYC Office of Payroll Administration guidance (an entity not part of H+H) (click to review the contract and policy). In these other agencies, the retroactive raises were calculated in addition to other adjustments made since the start of this contract (May 25, 2021). We believe this is valid grounds to grieve H+H's improper implementation of our contract.

However, filing a grievance is not the same as winning a grievance, and to do that we need your help: We want to get a majority of Social Workers in H+H to sign onto our group grievance to show H+H that we're all united on this issue.

Click here to sign our grievance:

As Social Workers, our ability to provide quality care to our clients depends on having the time needed to listen, evaluate and plan our interventions. Of course we also need to do the follow up, and document, document, document. It's a lot!

Unions of other caring professions employed by NYC -- like nurses and teachers -- have adopted strategies that have successfully forced their employers to bargaining over their workloads. For nurses, they fought hard to win fair 'nurse:patient ratios'. Similarly, for teachers, it's all about class size. For these workers, there are nationally recognized benchmarks that help them figure out what the demand ought to be.

For Social Workers, there is no nationally recognized standard workload, so if we want to put up a strong fight to win caseload standards, we need to develop that goal ourselves. That is the purpose of this survey: We need to know your experience, so that we can formulate a goal that meets your needs, for your clients.

Please take just a few minutes to answer these questions, and encourage all other Social Worker in Local 768 to fill it out as well!

One of the goals of our union has been to help our members find ways to benefit from loan repayment programs. Understanding these programs can be complicated, and eligibility criteria vary. We have compiled this guide of several programs to help you get started in the process, but please be sure to confirm all details directly with the appropriate program administrators.

Comparison of Loan Repayment and Forgiveness programs

• Chair: Karen Ramirez (H+H / Elmhurst)
• Secretary: Sharon Bryan (H+H / Community Care)

Please join our nation union Wednesday, January 19 for an important webinar to find out how AFSCME members can qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program.

Register for the webinar

PSLF is a federal student loan relief program established in 2007 and designed to encourage individuals to enter and continue to work full-time in public sector jobs. Participation in the program generally requires that the borrower have a federal Direct Loan, be employed by a qualified employer on a full-time basis and make 120 loan payments under a qualifying repayment plan. Upon meeting these requirements, the borrower’s loans are to be forgiven. The Department of Education has announced temporary changes to PSLF that expands the number of public service workers who are eligible for loan forgiveness. These changes will expire October 31, 2022, so make sure you don’t miss this opportunity.

First dose of Vaccination is to be done by Monday November 1, 2021 to be in compliance with the new mandate from Mayor de Blasio. To receive the $500.00 bonus the first dose must be completed by 5pm Friday October 29, 2021. The union continues to bargain over the impact the mandate has on the members.

Thank you,

Carmen De León,
President Local 768 DC37
AFSCME, AFL-CIO