(Continued from homepage)

The Clergy, in both HHC and Corrections, where are your leaders?

Activity Therapists, who knows about your needs? Who will address them?

Recreation Supervisors and Recreation Directors, who will best represent you in 2008, 2009 and 2010?

Playground Associates are the backbone of the new DPR. Who will support you in 2010?

Get involved now.

Four meetings and you will have a new President. About 526 are now voting members. Last election, 146 members voted and set the new direction for Local 299. This decision of who will lead your local for the future is critical.

Wake up, look around and find out what is happening at your Local Union.

I will be requesting an increase in the dues paid by Members making in excess of $30,000 and an additional dues increase of Members earning more then $40,000. This will balance the budget of this local and enable the Local to go forward with financial integrity and independence. All titles earning below $30,000 will remain with their dues unchanged.

I want to urge each of you to use the calendar included with this letter. Call any of the individuals listed about your situations or concerns. Please do not wait until a situation gets more and more complex. Each of these Officers of the Local will give you good advice or, find the correct person to have you call.

Please make special note of Elizabeth Rogers' number and remember she is the Chairperson of the Sunshine Committee. She must be informed if a member is ill or hospitalized, when babies are born or members marry. We want to know and help celebrate or just help.

We are Union. In truth I believe Local 299 to be the greatest experiment in democracy within DC37. The General Membership Meetings are the forum for the direction and substance of our Local. You should know that for years now, all relevant issues have been brought to these meetings. Quite often in an adversarial way I have lost many battles in policy and politic but in the end the will of the Membership was made the policy of the Local. This is great.

We have added benefits for members and created a new and vibrant Local 299. Ask how we represent members.

If we do not know your problem we cannot help. From time to time the solution could be with our Attorney. Your agency will re-think when you come to a hearing with Stuart Salles or one of his other attorneys. Only the Local can assign this kind of representation. Remember that Stuart Salles is available to you every day with telephone consultation or by the scheduling of a consultation at Stuart Salles' new offices at 225 Broadway.

We have a Scholarship Fund. This encourages the children of the Local to pursue a higher education and helps hardworking parents defray some of the cost of tuition.

My tenure has produced many positive results and I want to recognize the great input of the good sisters and brothers that regularly attend the membership meetings. It is only together that we arrived at this happy place. My heartfelt thanks to these members who really make democracy work by coming to these meetings; they are a great group of unionists. In the final outcome, we have made very reasonable decisions.

This year come to all of these meetings. Four evenings and watch what happens. Be part of the change and the Local's future. Put in for leave time requests for each meeting now. Have your time off scheduled. We will provide dinner and a door prize.

This year we will give each member attending the General Membership Meeting in January a quality Official Local 299 Union Jacket. Many members ask how to get a Union Jacket, this is the only way, attending union meetings. The May meeting will be the coveted Local 299 Attaché. In September, each member attending the General Membership Meeting gets a new Official 299 hat with full color embroidered logo. The November door prize will be our Official Local 299 Golf Umbrella in black and white. What can keep you away?

I hope you have noticed and benefited from the changes made. Call the Officers at the numbers on your calendar. Note in your calendar the events of consequence in your personal life and in your work life.

On a personal note, I want each of you to know that it has been a pleasure to be able to represent you for these years. I thank each of you for having the faith in me. It has been a true honor to serve as your President. You gave me the opportunity to restructure this Local to better serve the members and to provide Civil Service advancement to as many members as possible.

In Solidarity,

Louis Sbar