More than a year ago, our Union members
warned Middlebury's elected officials against forcing healthcare changes instead of mutual negotiations to achieve cost savings in a tough economy. Now that an arbitrator has found the Board of Selectmen
violated its contracts with their employees by implementing risky Health Savings Accounts (HSA) over our objections, all employers should take notice; listening to your workers may be less costly than following your lawyers' advice.
The
decision awarded by an arbitrator with the Connecticut State Board of Mediation and Arbitration is unequivocal. He has ruled that Middlebury officials could not ignore their negotiating obligations to the town's municipal employees and their unions by unilaterally imposing a substantially different medical insurance plan on its workforce.
Translation: the Board of Selectman, the Chief Financial Officer, and their team of lawyers made a big mistake. Just as we asserted when
we filed charges over the matter with the State Board of Labor Relations a year ago.
(Note: The arbitrator ruled on three separate cases, one for each municipal bargaining unit our Union represents, though two of the decision's cover sheets refer to the same chapter name due to duplication error.)
Local press coverage began after we announced the decision, and the first to report the news was the Waterbury Republican-American. Their
article in Thursday's edition quotes Tracy Graziano and Al Cronin, presidents of two of our three Council 760 chapters representing Middlebury public service workers.
Coverage yesterday included reaction to the decision from First Selectman Tom Gormley, who in a puzzling move seems willing to defer to the same lawyers who advised him to violate our members' contracts in the first place. In a
Republican-American story, he appears clueless about how to correct the problem he and his finance and legal teams have created.
The Middlebury Bee-Intelligencer
features a front-page story in this week's edition on the decision, and includes comments from Mr. Gormley that echo his remarks to the Rep-Am about scratching his head, wondering what to do next...
Our Union members understand the challenges facing the town and its elected officials, just as they did more than a year ago when they offered to be partners in helping to weather an uncertain economic storm. After all, town voters recently rejected a proposed budget for the next fiscal year, and the Board of Finance has
recommended deep cuts to public services for another fiscal package to be decided in a second referendum.
Added to their challenge in passing a budget is town officials' ongoing failure to replace the police department's faulty radio equipment, despite strong
support from our Union members. Town voters defeated a
third attempt to pass a referendum on the bonding needed to upgrade the public safety communications on Tuesday, leaving the ability to correct this very serious problem in doubt.
Throw in the failure of town officials to reach an agreement on a successor contract for our members in Chapter I32, which represents sworn officers in the Middlebury Police Department. As the Rep-Am
reported in a story last Sunday, the major "sticking point" in reaching a mutual settlement on an agreement for the contract, which expired last July, has remained their insurance takeaway scheme.
Going forward, our members are anticipating what they still expect to be productive discussions on a resolution that restores their healthcare security, notwithstanding the First Selectman's comments to the press. As
they have repeatedly said while awaiting last week's arbitration hearings that produced this precedent-setting decision, there are better choices for balancing municipal budgetary needs than violating contracts with public service workers.
Now that Middlebury officials have to deal with their mistake, they need to hear from the voting public. Union members and supporters of smart, responsible government who are residents can tell town officials they should avoid repeating their errors in a
letter to the editor of one or more of the three area newspapers that has covered the dispute over the past year:
Waterbury Republican-American
Middlebury Bee-Intelligencer
Voices
Posted by:
Matt OConnor on 6/19/2010 at 11:09:00 AM