This story by Liberty Darr was first published in The Citizen on June 20.
After a turbulent budget season last year that left Charlotte divided over employee health care costs and wages, the town’s municipal employees are now looking to join a union.
According to a petition from the Vermont Labor Relations Board that was discussed in executive session at last week’s board meeting, 10 town employees — library workers, the zoning administrator and town planner, assistant town clerk, and volunteer coordinator at the Charlotte Senior Center — are eligible to be represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 93.
According to the petition, AFSCME Council 93 is requesting an election by the Vermont Labor Board in Charlotte as a majority of the town’s employees have indicated their intent to join the union.
Jim Durkin, director of legislation and political action at the council — which represents workers across New England — said that the entire process of joining a union, like anything else, typically starts with a conversation.
“They’ll hear about somebody, a friend or even an acquaintance, who is represented by a union and as a result, is doing better wage-wise,” he said. “Then the process is to have people sign cards indicating their desire to at least explore things further. Once you reach a certain threshold on those cards, you file for an election and the campaign begins.”
Town planner Larry Lewack said he was reluctant to go into any detail about the efforts at this point, mostly because the union has not been formally recognized and the town is currently working with its attorney on the matter.
“The bottom line is that some of the town employees believe that it would be in our interest to participate in the union to have more of a say in working conditions and salaries and benefits with the town,” he said. “It’s like we want to have a voice in the conversations and decisions that impact our jobs and our lives, just like employees from many other towns across Vermont and New England who have joined this particular union.”
Lewack said that as the legislative body for the town, the selectboard has been asked to recognize the union without a formal election, but the selectboard has not yet decided do that, which triggers a formal election certification process.
“I don’t really want to comment on the process because it hasn’t resolved yet,” he said. “Lawyers are involved, and it would be bad to get into the sort of details of what’s come up between the union and the selectboard because we don’t have a contract and we’re not recognized yet. It’s all up in the air at this moment.”
New statewide legislation, Act 117, passed into law this year, says that after July 1, no election process is needed should a majority of employees express a formal interest in unionizing. This process, known as, “majority authorization,” Durkin said, is often referred to as, “card check.”
“The reason card check is so important is it neutralizes that period, under the old system, between signing those cards and the election because management typically has extreme advantage in terms of being able to bring their employees into meetings and saying, ‘You don’t need a union. You don’t want a union. It’s nothing but trouble,’ that kind of thing.”
Lewack confirmed that since the majority of town employees have signed cards, they would be eligible for majority authorization.
Employee health benefits have for years been outlined in a personnel policy that is crafted and amended by the selectboard. Several questions to town administrator Nate Bareham regarding how unionization would affect the town’s personnel policy have gone unanswered.
But Lewack said he imagines the personnel policy will have to change once negotiations begin for their first contract, which will act as the ultimate governing policy for employees.
The board is still on track to cut nearly $30,000 from employee health benefits packages this year, a promise made to voters after its budget was voted down at last year’s Town Meeting Day. The issue boiled over in a contentious battle between some taxpayers upset by tax increases, mostly associated with employee costs, and workers who said they felt “blindsided” by proposed cuts to their compensation packages.
The board charged a working group, spearheaded by board member Kelly Devine, at that time to find cost savings for the town, but even members of the group were divided on where to make cuts.
Now, Devine and board member Lewis Mudge have been working with Blue Cross Blue Shield to work on a new benefit package for employees. At the meeting last week, Devine said that the duo is meeting with a representative from the company to go over potential options, which will then be brought before employees.
“We were definitely looking to reduce the number of options of plans that are offered to streamline things administratively,” she said.
But board chair Jim Faulkner reiterated that, regardless, the board has a certain amount of money to shave off.
“We’ve got to get to $30,000,” Mudge agreed. “That’s what we committed to.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: Charlotte employees mobilize for a union.