About 250 city employees have been working without a contract for a year, and with six months of talks between Bayonne officials and union leaders going nowhere, an impasse has been declared and the state has named a mediator.
The members of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 2261 have been working without a contract since July 1 of last year. Among those represented by the union are Public Works, police communications, library, and other city hall employees, according to Chuck Freyer, AFSCME Local 2261 president.
Freyer said contract talks started last August and were anticipated to be completed by December.
Freyer said he was negotiating with Business Administrator Joseph DeMarco, Chief Financial Officer Terrence Malloy, and city attorney Susan Ferraro.
Both sides said they met at least once a month from last fall until this spring, but to no avail.
Because it appears a stalemate has been reached on the rank-and-file contract, the state Public Employment Relations Commission assigned a mediator who will now schedule a meeting.
“I would anticipate by the end of July there would be another meeting regarding the contract,” DeMarco said on Friday, June 26.
The city recently reached a contract agreement with the union’s supervisors union. DeMarco said a similar package has been offered to the workers still without a contract.
The two major issues are annual raises and furlough day paybacks. The city offered 8.75 percent in raises over a five-and-a-half-year period, according to DeMarco. The union is seeking 10 percent over four and a half years, according to Freyer, but would have taken a deal offering nine percent over five years.
“We have to survive,” Freyer said. “We have to pay into the health benefits now. It’s the second year we have to pay. And our pension contribution goes up. It seems like every time we do get a raise we wind up losing money.”
The other issue is the timing of pay back of furlough day money. In the past, the city reimbursed the money for those days upon retirement or resignation. The city is now offering to pay back half of banked furlough days over the course of the contract, DeMarco said. The union wants the money to be paid back earlier in the contract.
Freyer said aspects of the city’s package change every time the two sides sit down, and things seem to have been worked out. Then no clear offer is made. DeMarco said the opposite is true.
“We are willing to talk with them about settling their contract,” he said prior to the mediator being selected. “It’s a fair deal. It’s something the city can afford.”
“They seem to have money; they just don’t want it to happen,” Freyer said. “They just want to pass it around to everyone else.”
Freyer said the city hired 72 new employees during the last year when his workers were without a contract. DeMarco disputes that figure, saying the vast majority of those hires were to replace workers resigning, retiring, or those who have indicated they will retire soon. He said that year to year, the difference is about 10 more employees than the previous year.
“It’s a fair deal. It’s something the city can afford.” – Joseph DeMarco
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‘Had your back’
At the June 17 City Council meeting, Stacie Percella, Local 2261 vice president, said that during last year’s municipal races, city employees worked to get Mayor James Davis and the current council members elected because they sought change.
“You all needed our support to get elected, and as you can see, we had your back,” Percella said. “City workers have stood up to the machine and won.”
But she said she wondered if the “new machine” had forgotten how they had gotten elected, and reminded them there were three years left in their terms. Percella said that when the city workers voted for change in the 2014 mayoral election, it did not work out so well for the previous administration.
Trying to be fair
But DeMarco said the contract boils down to what’s fair to both workers and taxpayers. “There’s a finite pool of money. There’s not an endless supply,” he said. “The ability to raise funds is extremely curtailed. The public’s tolerance for a tax increase does not exist anymore. We’re trying to be fair to give people a livable wage without hurting the taxpayer.”
Joseph Passantino may be reached at JoePass@hudsonreporter.com.To comment on this story online visit www.hudsonreporter.com.