Fund-raising employes of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York struck the office of the Federation yesterday, charging that in months of negotiations, Federation negotiators had refused to offer any salary increases.
A Federation spokesman denied the charge, asserting that Federation negotiators had offered repeatedly to provide “reasonable increases” in salaries and improvements in fringe benefits when the union, District Council 1707, Community and Social Agency Employes, AFL-CIO, reduced its demand to “reasonable levels.”
A union spokesman said 150 fund-raising workers walked out of the Federation offices yesterday and that 400 union members at the New York UJA office respected their picket lines, shutting down both offices, A year ago, the two agencies set up a joint fund-raising campaign in which 70 Federation fund-raising workers switched to the UJA offices for the joint campaign.
The current union-Federation contract ended last July 1 and Federation union members authorized the union officers to call a strike at the Federation. The United Jewish Appeal workers contract continues until next Jan. 31 and those workers cannot strike, a union spokesman said.
The union spokesman said that one bargaining session was held in June and contract talks were resumed in September. He said the management rejected a union proposal for one contract for the two agencies but did agree on two contracts with a common expiration date. However, he said, the management representatives rejected all requests for increases in salaries and instead proposed a wage freeze.
FEDERATION EXPLAINS ITS POSITION
The Federation and the UJA-Federation joint campaign issued a statement yesterday calling for a “speedy resumption of negotiations and an early end” of the strike. The statement said that “last-ditch appeals” by management to avert the strike were rejected by the union’s leadership, placing in jeopardy a drive to raise funds for endangered and needy Jews in Israel and 24 overseas countries and for member agencies of the Federation which the statement said serves 1.5 million New Yorkers.
Officials of the two agencies said that meeting the union’s initial demands for salary increases and improved fringe benefits would cost more than $2.25 million in the first year. The Federation spokesman said the union had asked for an increase of $3500 per employe for each year of a two-year agreement.
The Federation-UJA statement said the strike came as the joint campaign was preparing for a series of fund-raising functions this month formally launching the 1976 drive.
The statement added that “recognizing the needs of the employes in these difficult times, management has been meeting once or twice a week with the union since September in an effort to reach a more reasonable agreement than the initial union demand for wage increases and adjusted fringe benefits that would have cost the campaign in excess of $2.25 million in the first year of the new contract.” The spokesman said that management had not made a specific counter-offer, awaiting “a more reasonable” set of demands from the union.
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