Politic Fights
Every election year brings on the same
hurdle for the firefighter’s union. The
mayoral candidates approach the union
and ask for their support throughout the
election. This is a major decision
the union (union representatives) has to
make. The representatives of the
union have to approach the membership with
their recommendation for whom to
support so that the candidate will have full
support from the union.
Hopefully, the candidate chosen by the representatives
of the union wins the
election. If the candidate chosen does not win the
election, the elected
candidate not supported by the union, understandably, he
has little or no
respect for the union at that time. In the 1993 election year
the union had
to make a major decision on whom to support for mayoral position,
the one we
chose was defeated. Because he did not win, there was a struggle
between
union and management. This did not come about because the union was
looking
to control the new administration, but the town wanted benefits given
back
which were negotiated with the mayor that we were supporting. The
union’s
main goal during this time frame was to get the new administration to
have some
kind of respect for us when we went down to the town hall to
resolve issues that
arose. For the first few years, the only way the town
would see it our way was
when the arbitrator’s decision was in our favor.
This was quite often. Since
1993, I have been either on the executive
board or vice president of the union
and received experience in grievances,
arbitration and negotiations. The town is
forever taking us to arbitration
and seldom winning. We have a contract that
protects us. Our contract was
negotiated collectively by the union and
management. When a new
administration controls the finances of the town, their
first goal is usually
to attack the benefits in our contract. The administration
now, which is
running the town of Johnston, took over in 1994. They thought that
the
firefighter contract was a lucrative one. The town leaders thought that
they
would win many benefits back by just taking us to arbitration. Along
with this
attitude, the town leaders had little respect for the union and the
leaders of
the union because of the reasons mentioned before. The town of
Johnston’s
first task with the firefighters union was to negotiate a
contract. They came
after our Blue Cross insurance, pension, pay, and our
promotional exam. They
would soon find out that the firefighters union was in
no position to just give
benefits back to the town. They were in for a fight.
These negotiations went on
for an extensive amount of time. Being part of
negotiations in the past, I knew
that most concessions the town was asking
for were part of negotiations and
immaterial to them. After weeding out the
non-essential proposals we were down
to the bottom line. The raise was the
last item left that would make or break
the agreement. The negotiation team,
which I was a part of, came up with a
unique way to receive a raise. We were
to receive no raise for eighteen months
then go from a bimonthly payment
schedule to biweekly a payment schedule, which
gave the union a eight percent
raise that year and a total of thirteen percent
over a three year period. The
town agreed and the contract was signed. The union
and town ended the
negotiations, with the union not conceding to any issues we
felt were
significant to us. This would be our first major victory. The town’s
next
fight was not to pay the union members their longevity the way it
was
calculated in the contract. We went to the town leaders to rectify the
situation
but the administrators would not negotiate anything but what they
thought the
contract said. Since the town and the union could not reach an
agreement, the
union filed a grievance with the American Arbitration
Association (this
association will schedule a date and an arbitrator to hear
the case) so that the
two parties could resolve the issue. This was another
major mistake the town
made, in not having any respect for the unions advice
in how to handle the
dispute the town cost the taxpayers money in arbitration
and in payment to the
union members. The town would not take our advice no
matter how straightforward
we were with them. I can understand that they
thought we were trying to
manipulate them into the way we seen fit, but that
was not the situation. All
the union executive members were from the town and
along with negotiating a
contract or going to grievance there is an inner
feeling to protect taxpayers of
the town. By the town leaders not taking our
advice, we filed a grievance. An
arbitrator heard the grievance and he
awarded the union a decision that entitled
union members to receive more
money in their longevity payment. The town leaders
were so stubborn at the
time that if they took our advise, it would of saved the
town substantial
amounts of money. First, by not going to arbitration and second
by paying the
union members less in longevity payments. We took the town to
arbitration
several other times. There was a point where the administrators of
the town
did not want to talk to us and we would file for arbitration, go
through the
proceedings with the town, and win. I feel that the headmen of the
town were
disgusted with their record in arbitration and they finally
surrendered, sat,
and talked with us. Winning so many arbitrations was the
beginning of the
respect the union was looking for, but not until the town and
the union spent
thousands of dollars unnecessarily in arbitration. Another
reason the town
started respecting us is that when we first started to bargain
with the town
there were people on both sides who thought they were in the
"Jimmy
Hoffa" era of negotiating. There was yelling and screaming across the
table
because of personal reasons that carried into the negotiations. We would
no
longer put up with this and weed off all the people on the board
that
negotiated like this and the town seemed to do the same. Everyone
involved in
the early negotiations lived and learned that behaving arrogantly
would not get
the union and the town very far. The nineties mode of
bargaining took over our
style. No one gets upset, argues, or screams for the
most part we tend to hash
out our disagreements through talks, and if one
side is feeling a little
uptight, the talks are called off for another day.
The town and the union have a
very good relationship now. We learned from the
past and try to work issues out
before going to arbitration. There will
always be our differences in
interpreting the contract, but now we can talk
and straighten out most, if not
all, of the issues before they are taken to
arbitration by either side. There
was a reason for the town to take the
actions they did and the union knew this.
The union was hoping that the
town would understand our position that the
contract was there to protect all
union members from wages to getting fired. The
reason why we have the
contract we have now is we fought the same fights in the
past that the town
wanted to fight now.