The relationship between Springfield's Finance Control Board and its city employee labor unions has been sour from the beginning—or, more precisely, before the beginning.
Early in 2004, the city—struggling with the financial disaster left by Mayor Mike Albano—turned to the state for help. And then-Gov. Mitt Romney was ready to offer some, with one very union-unfriendly twist: the Romney administration wanted to tie the state aid package to a provision that would do away with the city's collective bargaining agreements. That union-busting move was dropped from the final legislation that created the Control Board and established a $52 million loan fund for the city. But the bad feelings remained, and intensified during the protracted and tense contract negotiations between the board and city unions.
That was the back story as the Control Board and Mayor Domenic Sarno recently delivered some unwelcome, if unsurprising, news. Faced with steep reductions in state aid, the city has to trim $4.6 million from the current fiscal year, much of it through personnel layoffs. One of the hardest-hit areas is the Department of Public Works, which faces a budget cut of 6.35 percent. Of the 89 layoffs expected across city government, 44 will come from DPW.
News of the DPW layoffs, of course, doesn't sit well with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1459, which represents the department's mechanics. It's not just the job losses, said Ross Kiely, 1459's business representative. "Layoffs are an unfortunate reality of the budget crisis," he said. "Our union is not seeking to be immune from layoffs at the expense of a different city department."
But, Kiely contends, DPW has become a "scapegoat" for the city's financial woes, as evidenced not only by the depth of the cuts the department faces, but also by what he describes as a deeper anti-union effort. As the Control Board prepares to leave the city this summer, Kiely says, it's making one last effort to weaken the city's employee unions by privatizing jobs.
*
Unlike in 2004, neither the current Control Board (whose state-appointed members changed in 2007) nor Sarno is calling for an end to collective bargaining. Instead, they're talking about outsourcing some work, now done by unionized city employees, to private firms to save money.
In the DPW, for instance, the mechanics' work will be put out for bid under a "managed competition" model, under which the current city employees will be invited to submit their own bid alongside bids from outside firms. That's what happened in 2005, when the city sought bids for trash collecting. In the end, the city chose the bid submitted by existing employees, which turned out to be the most cost-effective.
The city is also considering putting out to bid some work in the Parks and Facilities departments. Jeffrey Litchfield, vice-president of the Springfield Public Building Tradesmen Association, told the Springfield Republican that outsourcing won't yield savings. "For these services, outsourcing is not going to save the city a dime," he warned.
Nor will it save money in DPW, Kiely said. "There's no justification for what [the Control Board] proposed," he told the Advocate. The city mechanics, Kiely said, are well-regarded professionals who've invested thousands of dollars in specialized training. "It's not an issue of finding more competent or hard-working people," he said.
And, Kiely said, the union mechanics make less than their privately employed counterparts. Under the existing contract, city mechanics earn $10.51 to $19.14 an hour, with most taking home around $16-17 an hour. By comparison, he said, mechanics in the local private sector can earn as much as $23 an hour; they also typically contribute less to their health coverage than the city workers.
If, as Kiely contends, outsourcing won't save the city money, why is it being promoted? "What is happening is a fiscal crisis & is being used as a smokescreen," Kiely said. "They have a political agenda to privatize."
*
Actually, says the mayor's office, the agenda at City Hall is to save money during fiscally tough times.
"Having to cut $4.6 million from the city's budget with only five months remaining in the fiscal year is not an easy task to accomplish and will often invite criticism," Tom Walsh, Sarno's communications aide, told the Advocate.?"The city cannot escape layoffs. This is an unfortunate but inevitable truth."
Steps have already been taken to lessen the number of layoffs needed, by eliminating 67 unfilled positions, for a savings of $1.8 million, and cutting another $1.5 million in non-personnel costs, Walsh said. "The remaining cuts will consist of layoffs, employee pay cuts and wage increase freezes," he said.
Savings may also come through turning some services over to private contractors, he added. With the expected deeper cuts in fiscal 2010 looming, "The city will review all possible cost-saving measures, including the outsourcing of some city services where greater efficiencies can be realized," Walsh said.
Walsh declined to address Kiely's specific charge that the Control Board was advancing an anti-union agenda—"I'm unable to comment on what the Control Board's agenda may or may not be," he said—but again emphasized the severity of the fiscal woes. "The City of Springfield will get through this crisis," he added.
Steve Lisauskas, executive director of the Control Board, was unavailable at deadline.
The city has outsourced some work in the past, with mixed results. In the School Department, custodian and cafeteria jobs have both been privatized; the latter move has reportedly saved the city as much as $1.8 million a year. Interestingly, after the privatization, the cafeteria workers decided to form a union, joining Local 1459.
The city also outsourced street sweeping in 2005, under the administration of Mayor Charlie Ryan. But two years later, Ryan cancelled that contract and returned those jobs to DPW after complaints about the quality of the work done by the private firm.
At the time, Sarno—then a city councilor and declared mayoral candidate—indicated a discomfort with outsourcing public jobs. Sarno, in fact, had called for Ryan to cancel the street sweeping contract. "Taxpayers, city residents deserve better for their tax dollars, but it makes you wonder what other miscalculations or mismanagement have occurred with privatizing some of our city services," he told the Republican in response to news of the cancellation.
*
On June 30, the Control Board will leave Springfield. But Sarno will still be mayor, and he'll have to deal with the political fallout of the city layoffs and his ruptured relationship with city unions.
Sarno defeated Ryan in 2007 with the support of local organized labor, including endorsements from the Pioneer Valley Central Labor Council and the Pioneer Valley Building Trades Council. While Ryan was endorsed by a couple of unions, many in the labor movement were angered by his and the Control Board's hard-line stance with city unions, opening the door for Sarno to successfully court the union vote.
Now, it appears, the door is open for any would-be challengers in this fall's mayoral election to steal away the union base from Sarno. City Councilor Bud Williams—the first, but perhaps not the last, councilor to jump into the mayor's race—has already reached out to the unions to express his support after the layoffs were announced, for example.
Sarno, meanwhile, finds himself in the awkward position of looking for a favor from the unions. The city has asked city unions to waive the 60-day notification period typically required under collective bargaining agreements before layoffs can begin. That would mean the first layoffs could happen this week. According to the mayor's office, the earlier layoffs happen in the current fiscal year, the fewer layoffs and other reductions will have to be made in the next fiscal year, when the city is facing a potential state cut of $13 million.
Local 1459 not only won't grant the waiver; it intends to fight, through the grievance process, the city's interpretation of when the 60-day clock begins ticking, Kiely said. The union maintains the 60-day period doesn't start until a worker receives his or her layoff notification. "Then they get their 60 days to begin preparing their life for unemployment," he said.
"Things like this are things a union talks about when there's no communication between the union and the mayor," Kiely added.
Still, the union doesn't appear completely ready to shut the door on Sarno. "We hope that Mayor Sarno comes to his senses and understands that privatization doesn't have a fiscal [savings] component, and that we engage in more substantive talks," Kiely said.
Walsh, the mayor's spokesman, says Sarno's commitment to organized labor has never wavered. "Mayor Sarno has a long track record of strong union support," he told the Advocate. "Since becoming mayor his personal support has not changed."
