UFT Contract: Secretaries Ask MORE for Help After Mulgrew Ignores Pleas

Mulgrew being handed requests

Dear Mr. Scott,

The secretaries of the UFT have been working under a 1979 contract. Some of the secretaries put together an outline of requests to up date our duties, title and protections against out of license employees being put in our positions. They have not opened up the test or upgraded it for yes ads. We handed these outlined requests to Mr. Mulgrew personally. We are not even mentioned in the new contract. We have had no reply from mulgrew or Mona Gonzales the chapter leader. We pay dues and work hard to keep things afloat while dealing with students, parents and administrators. Can you help us?

Secretaries are one of the forgotten segments of the UFT. When one of them challenged MORE for not taking up their cause I challenged the secretary to get involved and lobby for their case. They seem to have tried using the UFT mechanisms and got nowhere. Their chapter has long been a Unity controlled sellout chapter.

Our correspondent continues:

Most of them are so depressed.

The negotiating committee never sends us update, no test for the secretaries was even suggested in the contract, no secretaries have been hired in years, secretaries that leave are never replaced with secretaries, the workload is always dumped on them or when we complain, they put school aides in our spot. Aides have access to DOE programs that detail information about students, they work in payroll, attendance and admitting students, programing, etc. The DOE knows that they are aides and still OK's requests for access to these programs on the request for access forms OK'd by the Principals, Assistant Principal in charge of running the school and/or a DOE hired administrative assistant.

We are asked to do work for programs that are run after school during our regular working hours. They stopped giving us per session to work after school in these programs and hired aids to do this work.

There are aides in the college offices, handing transcripts to colleges and SAT information to send to the colleges and the students.

No one listens. Not Mulgrew, Gonzales, Principals, AP's, no one.

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These are the requests that were handed to Mr. Mulgrew in a folder last May. We know all of the requests won't be met, but no one even mentioned updates to the secretarial area. 

Last May? A year has gone by with Mulgrew ignoring them. My message to secretaries is to start organizing. Get emails of every secretary you know and help MORE create a secretary committee run by secretaries.

REQUESTS FOR NEW SECRETARIAL CONTRACT

1. Chapter leaders, having knowledge of secretarial infringements by aides doing secretarial jobs and as UFT contractual agreement, should put through a grievance without individual request. The arbitration won by the UFT with regard to out of license pedagogues doing secretarial work is not being upheld. The Department of Education is giving Aides access to DOE software programs that only secretaries and administrators should have access to. The DOE is not hiring secretaries to fill areas of need. They are using Aides. More per session for secretaries (administrative assistants)
   
2. More per session for secretaries (administrative assistants) should be included in the budget. Money must be made available, not comp time.
   
3. When there is per session for teachers/administrators for special programs, secretarial hours must be included to do all the paperwork/payroll involved in the programs. (Often we are forced to do this work during the day in addition to our already heavy workloads).
   
4. During higher work volume through the year and upon absence of a secretary, peak load and per diem secretaries should be used to lessen the work load burden of a secretary.
   
5. The DOE must ENFORCE not giving Aides access to programs only secretaries (administrative assistants) and supervisors may access to.
   
6. DOE should implement updated and job appropriate secretarial (administrative assistants) exams to enter field. The test should include MS Office experience, Excel, PowerPoint and Publisher.
   
7. Applications for secretarial (Administrative assistants) positions should be accepted this year 2013-2014 and onward.
   
8. The date of the Secretarial (Administrative Assistant) exams should be on a date in 2013-14 onward and advertised.
   
9. The number of secretaries should be based on the number of students. i.e. H.S .SETTING: Minimum 12 secretaries for 2500 students. There should be a formula for the minimum number of secretarial positions for each school. We are understaffed and our workloads continue to increase.
   

10. Postings for secretarial positions should be posted after a secretary retires from a position held by them. Aides are not licensed to do secretarial work and must not take the secretary’s place. (This is included in our current contract but not always followed).
11. Salary steps should also be given to secretaries (administrative assistants) who took outside classes to improve their skills (i.e. MS Office classes, Administrative Assistant Seminars, etc.)
12. DOE should hire new secretaries (administrative assistants) to handle burden of workload where and when necessary. (Formula)
13. More secretaries (administrative assistants) should be hired to process data and clerical duties in each school.
14. There should be a Network and/or liaisons for secretaries. Name and phone numbers should be supplied directly to the secretary for contact.
15. Differential 2 should be increased monetarily.
16. Air conditioning or fans should be supplied by the school, as needed, to provide an
environmentally safe and reasonable temperature for the secretary (administrative assistant) 1

working condition.
17. A monthly meeting with the Principal, lasting at least 20 minutes, to discuss secretarial issues and
updates of what is being discussed with the rest of the staff and administration. So that we are
all on the same page, copies of faculty minutes should be provided to all secretaries.
18. All secretaries must be supplied with the appropriate professional development and classes so
that they are proficient in all aspects of their duties.
19. On Professional Development day, secretaries must be required and allowed to have
professional development. Professional development for secretaries should be provided in each borough of the City of New York. Network leaders or the power that be, cannot cancel professional development for secretaries and require them to work on that day.
20. Reimbursement should be provided to secretaries for required classes in order to maintain their license and/or increase their applied skills.