Gloucester City Councilman Marchese: Union Employees Could Have Settled Contracts to Save Fellow Workers Jobs

 
By Bill Cleary

 Gloucester City Second Ward Councilman Nick Marchese released the following statement today regarding the ongoing debate surrounding the laid off firemen. For those unfamilar with the story in June the City and the FMBA, the union that represents the firemen, agreed to a tenative contract which included a no layoff clause ending three years of bitter negotiations. At the time the union agreed to number of concessions. Over the next two months the contract remained unsigned. Then in September the FMBA announced that they were backing out of the June tenative agreement. The reason given was the City would not give in to the union\’s demand for a minimum staffing clause. The City said the union\’s minimum staffing demand would wipe out projected savings that have enabled the administration to avoid layoff. The last day of work for the 8 firemen was December 22.

Councilman Marchese writes,

\”It has come to my attention and is very interesting that a resident who has spoken out, Mike Stanton thinks both Mayor and Council and our Fire Fighter\’s have failed in the Fire Department contract negotiations. While I appreciate his opinion it’s very easy to be naive and make such a statement if you haven\’t been involved in the process or have all of the pertinent information. I would think that just the opposite is true. This administration has taken bold steps since the day we took office to reduce our cities budget. This cost cutting process began for us in 2007, two years prior to any other municipality taking such actions. If our city employees had even considered the most modest of concessions, our city would not be in the financial crunch that we have been enduring. Now other towns, cities, and various states around the country are making some of the same financial changes.

\”The Fire Department employees or any of our cities employees have never mentioned they were given a 3.5 % raise from the city for 2008 while they didn’t even have a contract or didn’t give back any concessions to the city. This money was set aside in the 2008 budget, but didn’t have to be given out; it was done in good faith. The Fire union and its members are willing to lose eight of their union brothers because they won’t honor the agreement that was made in good faith regarding their contract. Our CWA employees made no agreement, just conceded to lose fellow employees so they could get a raise instead of standing behind them to help save their jobs. We currently have a possible agreement with our steel workers union that we are waiting for confirmation and could be an example of good things to come.

\” Nothing has been said by these employees about all of the non union represented employees who lost the same benefits as all city employees were asked to give back. The non- union represented employees give backs and savings to the tax payers began in 2007. Our cities union represented employees have been asked to give back the same to save their fellow worker jobs.

\”Mayor and Council respects and appreciates all of our cities emergency responders and all of our employees, but also have a obligation to the tax payers to improve the future of the city while maintaining financial order. We don’t necessarily want to proceed with layoffs, but someone has to step up and make the tough decisions. We have and will continue to do the right thing by reducing costs, follow the law as laid down by the state, and continuing to negotiate with the unions to be part of the solution to these financial conflicts, not a part of the problem like some of the misinformed people who continue to comment on these issues without knowing all of the facts.\”

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