August 14, 2007

Lynn Buckley, Representative
Communications Workers of America
1030 St. Georges Avenue
Suite 304
Avenel , NJ , 07001

Re: Request for Arbitration
Unwarranted Denial of Merit Day

Dear Sister Buckley::

CWA Local 1081 respectfully requests the National CWA file for arbitration the matter of the County of Essex denying a merit day to those of our Union 's members who at the maximum of the salary range. The approximate end date of the forty-five (45) days subsequent to the fifteen (15) working days the County had to respond to our Local's attached Step III Class Action Contractual Grievance of June 18, 2007 is August 22, 2007:

  1. Division of Welfare Director Bruce Nigro's attached memorandum of June 11, 2007 asserts "Article XIII-Salaries and Compensation, Number 4, ‘Effective December 31, 2006, the County will implement one-half (1/2) of a tenth (10th) step to the respective ranges as of 12/30/06, for all eligible employee of the bargaining unit'".
  2. However, he egregiously misinterprets our contracts when he erroneously asserts "Any employee who received an increment or ˝ of an increment in calendar year 2006 is not eligible for a Merit Day off in 2007".
  3. In fact, his memorandum accurately asserts that our contracts state "Employees who are at the maximum of their title's salary range during the performance year will be credited a day off in the succeeding year." Last year, as per our negotiations' discussed and memorialized interactions with the County regarding the specific contracts' articles Mr. Nigro cites, those members of our Union, as well as those applicable members of PESU, at maximum were granted a merit day off because of the fact they had been at maximum within 2005.
  4. Those members at maximum within calendar year 2006 were, both technically and actually, at maximum within the entirety of that calendar year, up to and inclusive of December 31, 2006, with the compensation for the ˝ step increase not actually provided them until the third pay within 2007.
  5. Therefore, all members of CWA Local 1081 who were at maximum within the 2006 performance year are indeed eligible for a credited day off within calendar year 2007.

CWA Local 1081 requests the National CWA file for arbitration immediately this matter, in the interest of time, and discuss any concerns or issues the National CWA may harbor afterward. Unfortunately, the County has apparently chosen not tp honor the unwritten agreement it has had with CWA Local 1081 for decades that each shall afford the other additional time with which to respond to grievances and grievances' responses. Our Local has made repeated verbal requests of Division of Welfare Deputy Director Yvonne Davis, who usually prepares Department Director Ramos' Step III Grievance replies, to arrange to have a response provided to our Step III Class Action Contractual Grievance in this regard, but to no avail.

Attached, as well, please find an OPRA request written the County by CWA Local 1081 seeking a copy of the Essex County Counsel's legal opinion in this regard.

Fraternally,

David H. Weiner, President
CWA Local 1081

C: Anibal Ramos
Bruce Nigro
Yvonne Davis
Courtney Gaccione




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