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County May Request Sanction of CSEA
PCSEA tentative settlement seen as possible threat to future union employees
by Margaret Sternberg
In a move that may result in censure of its union, the Civil Service Employees Association (“CSEA”) released a statement commenting on a proposed settlement between Putnam County and the Putnam County Sheriff’s Employees Association (“PCSEA”).
The action, according to the County’s Director of Personnel, Paul Eldridge, may result in the county taking CSEA before the Public Employment Relations Board (“PERB”) and asking for a sanction of “improper practice” by the union.
The issue, Eldridge said, involves the commenting by the CSEA on elements of the tentative agreement the County has reached with the PCSEA. Eldridge said the CSEA appeared to have breached a verbal agreement with the County concerning the “ground rules” of their negotiations: not to comment on ongoing negotiations between the County and the CSEA. The problem arose when, in commenting on some of the items in the PCSEA tentative contract that are also part of the CSEA negotiations, the CSEA, in essence, was commenting on its ongoing negotiations.
Eldridge said he was “disappointed” by what he called a display of “bad faith” and felt the action might be a setback to the current negotiations with the CSEA.
Eldridge was concerned about the effect of the comments on the tentative settlement with the PCSEA. Eldridge also noted that the taking of a public stand might prove embarrassing should the union subsequently back away from its position.
“We’re going to need to talk about this issue [with CSEA Unit 8150 President, John Bennett] to get past it,” Eldridge said.
According to Mr. Bennett, although aware of the possibility of the sanction, the regional CSEA thought the issue of the PCSEA tentative settlement important enough to proceed with a statement.
Mr. Bennett said the comments were directed more toward what they felt was a “bad negotiation style, in general as opposed to saying what we’re going to be doing in our negotiations…We honestly believe that any union should not be segregating current employees from new employees, and that’s the stand we’re basically taking.” Bennett said their concern lay with the harm done to “all union households” by “tiered agreements” and that the purpose of the press release had been to alert people to the practice “…here in Putnam County.”
He said the union takes the view of looking out for everyone “and not just for yourself.” Bennett said the press release to his employees had been prompted by voiced concerns as well as the similarity in names of the two unions. He said one letter had advised employees of the CSEA’s “general strategy for negotiations in general” as opposed to negotiating in public. Bennett said that he agreed with Eldridge about not making ongoing negotiations public; however, it was felt the stratification of members issue was so important that the public needed to be made aware despite the risk of sanctions.
Bennett said the issue was “global” in scope and the union felt the practice was “so horrific we had to do something,” describing a self-perpetuating pattern of each union trying to rectify prior contracts that deprived a group of benefits.
Bennett stressed, “We were not trying to negotiate in bad faith, we were just trying to let people know how bad that kind of system is…not only for our negotiations, but for everybody.” Bennett said he hoped the issue would not hurt negotiations with the County.
The CSEA represents approximately 400 workers in the county. Its contract expired December 31, 2006, but Mr. Eldridge said it is normal for negotiations to go beyond the expiration of a contract.
County Executive Bob Bondi said, “Every group of employees has the right to unionize; however, once they decide which union they want to be in, I don’t think it’s appropriate for unions to try to influence other unions and try to influence the outcome of negotiations between any one union by trying to lobby all unions. We try to operate from Management’s side in a fair and equitable way, with the motive of representing the taxpayers, and for any one union to lobby another union on a contract the union negotiated…is crossing the line in fairness…I think each union is entitled to its own decisions, its own settlements and negotiations…”
Bondi questioned why there would be different unions if all had the same needs, pointing out there are “unique characteristic associated with the membership, unique needs, unique circumstances relating to the types of work people do and the risks involved and the pressure involved in doing one’s job; those are the reasons people set up separate unions,” concluding that each of the separate unions should then negotiate on its own and not attempt to influence others “on a particular part of their overall bargain.”
Robert Wendover, President of the PCSEA, released a statement to the PCN&R saying, “The members of our union have gone almost five years without a raise. We have had to do numerous protests in front of the county legislative meetings and at the Republican nominations. We have spoken to the press and stood up to the County without the support or public backing of not one of the other unions in Putnam County. Our members want desperately to settle a contract. In four years of negotiating this was the first proposal put on paper and returned to the membership. It was the best the County was offering. Now it is up to the membership to either approve or reject this offer. If the offer is rejected I hope the County Executive will sit right back down at the negotiating table to do what’s best for all.”
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