Thompson: IBEW vote exaggerated
By DIANA CAMPBELL, Staff Writer
City Mayor Steve Thompson said he is upset at what he calls a mischaracterization of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers' decision to sue the city.
John Giuchichi, IBEW business agent, admitted he misspoke about a Feb. 14 meeting in stating that all the union membership decided to go to court to settle a 2004 contract dispute.
Instead, a "general consensus" of 17 workers whose leave time is at the center of the contract dispute said to go to court, Giuchichi said Thursday. The union represents 32 workers in the public works, engineering, finance, police, fire and technology departments.
"I really feel he's got his own agenda and doesn't care what the members want or what they feel is a fair contract," Thompson said by telephone from California.
Giuchichi said the IBEW membership at the Feb. 14 meeting discussed the City Council's contract offer and what to do about the disputed leave time. The union plans to go to court over the leave time, Giuchichi said, and that was the general consensus of the 17 workers affected by the issue.
"At this point, we're moving forward with filing a suit," Giuchichi said.
The issue concerns extra leave time--in addition to personal leave--earned by some employees according to their length of employment. The extra time was a benefit of previous IBEW labor contracts but for the last six years new union employees haven't gotten the leave. Only the 17 workers who had the benefit grandfathered into existing contracts do.
In 2003, Thompson proposed, and the City Council approved, to not fully fund bonus leave for union and nonunion employees and to require them to pay a portion of their health insurance.
The unions complained, and one union representing the city's firefighters filed a suit. IBEW instead entered binding arbitration with the city last year.
The arbitrator, Robert Landau, ruled the city owes the money for health insurance and leave time since both were part of a signed contract. However, he added that funding the contract was the responsibility of the City Council.
"Thus the award gives the appropriate legislative body--the City Council--the discretion to fund or not to fund the monetary remedies set forth in the award, and does not obligate the Council to fund the award," Landau wrote.
Giuchichi and IBEW's associate general counsel, Bill Wielechowski, disagreed, saying the city owes the money and the city should pay.
"We are going to court," Giuchichi said, adding that if the matter can be resolved before a court appearance, they would drop the suit.
In a separate but related matter, IBEW and the city have been negotiating a contract for 2005. On Feb. 7 the City Council approved an ordinance allowing Thompson to enter into a contract that was not agreed upon by the union but gave them more money. The contract gave the union an extra $219,000, which Thompson said he'd have to rearrange the budget to fund. It also contained an offer to cash out bonus leave at 175 percent, he said.
"We can give them that in a cash payout for a tax-free annuity or they can take it as cash, pay the taxes and keep the balance," Thompson said.
Thompson said that the city is facing a financial crunch because of a multimillion-dollar debt to the Public Employees' Retirement System and reduced municipal aid, and therefore can't fully fund its union contracts.
The leave issue makes it difficult for the membership to vote on the City Council's offer because it contains wording that the union would have to give up its right to take the leave dispute or other issues to court, Giuchichi said.
The membership as a whole will vote Feb. 28 on whether to accept the contract, he said.
Both Thompson and Giuchichi said that contract negotiations are complicated and subject to misinterpretation.
"Very much so," Thompson said.
Diana Campbell can be reached at 459-7523 or dcampbell@newsminer. com.
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