TO: All CWA Local 1081 Members
FROM: David H. Weiner, President
DATE: November 11, 2008
SUBJECT: Arbitration Hearing Regarding Improper Transfers
Attached, please find a letter of October 6, 2008, written Essex County Chief of Labor and Employment Courtney Gaccione, Esq. and CWA Representative Lynn Buckley by Labor Arbitrator Mattye Gandel, confirming that an arbitration hearing has been scheduled for February 5, 2009 regarding CWA Local 1081’s grievance found below submitted on June 2, 2008 to protest the fact the County transferred five members of our Union without requisite regard to their respective agency-wide seniority in violation of the above cited contractual articles, particularly Article V. Seniority and Job Vacancies.
As I have extolled the members of CWA Local 1081 many times over the nearly past three decades of my administration as president of our Union, our contract with the County is only worth the paper upon which it is printed if our Union polices it and fights to ensure it is strictly enforced. This we have always done, and this I will always do.
June 2, 2008
Anibal Ramos, Director
Essex County Department of Citizen Services
18 Rector Street, Floor 9
Newark, NJ, 07102
Re: Step III Class Action Contractual Grievance
Inappropriate & Inequitable Transfers
Article I. Purpose
Article V. Seniority and Job Vacancies
Article VII. Discipline
Article XXV: Non-Discrimination
Dear Mr. Ramos:
CWA Local 1081 submits this Step III Class Action Contractual Grievance, on behalf of the following members of our Union, to protest the fact the County transferred them recently without requisite regard to their respective agency-wide seniority in violation of the above cited contractual articles, particularly Article V. Seniority and Job Vacancies:
1. Melinda Audige, FSW
2. Priscilla Mendez, CT-BL
3. Safia Rogers-McClean, FSW
4. Chanelle Sanders, FSW
5. Jean Thomas, FSW
Director Nigro’s attached Step II Class Action Contractual Grievance denial response of May 16, 2008 is unacceptable to CWA Local 1081 and our adversely affected members, particularly since he fails to delineate any justification for his assertion “The decision to transfer these employees was based upon agency need” inasmuch as our contract positions “seniority” as the primary determinant.
With the existence within the agency of numerous vacant positions, as well as the contractually violative placement of less senior employees in positions more senior employees may well plausibly prefer, the resolution CWA Local 1081 respectfully demands to this grievance is for the County to allow all of the abovementioned members of our Union, and all those subsequently to be transferred as well, their hard earned seniority to determine their new assignments. We seek a hearing, in this regard.
Sincerely,
David H. Weiner, President
CWA Local 1081
C: Bruce Nigro
Lynn Buckley
Stephen Weissman, Esq.