Public Employee Press

Upstate members of Locals 376 and 1322 win grievances
Detour paves road to victory

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

Three years ago, the Dept. of Environmental Protection hired a private contractor to fix the Reservoir Road Bypass Bridge in the upstate hamlet of Olive, N.Y.

But the agency forgot to include the necessary detour road in the contract and instead ordered 11 members of Locals 1322 and 376 to build the road - a job that involved extensive out-of-title work for the employees, who usually maintain the city's reservoirs.

The union members filed grievances and won, so DEP must pay them the difference between what they actually received and the rate for higher-paid job titles.

"Management forced these people to do work beyond their job specs, but the city came out on the losing end," said Local 1322 President Fred Ricci.

"We fought for our members to be paid fairly for the work they did, and we won," said Local 376 President Gene DeMartino.

After DEP assigned two Local 1322 Level 1 Supervisors and a crew of Watershed Maintainers in Local 376 to build the detour road, the union filed grievances that went to arbitration. Ricci said, "We have the grievance process as a protection for situations like this but the point is DEP should offer to compensate workers first."

Blue Collar Council Rep Bob Gervasi filed Local 1322's grievance and Assistant General Counsel Dena Klein successfully argued it for Ashokan Reservoir Supervisors Paul Mejias and Boyd Vaughn.

"DEP is supposed to have an engineer on site," Gervasi explained. "But the agency never assigned one. They passed the project onto our members and forced them to build the road on their own - which is outside their job descriptions."

To clear trees, lay the subsurface, grade and top the detour road so local traffic could bypass the bridge as it was repaired, the members operated heavy-duty construction vehicles, which is also out-of-title work.

After the bridge was rebuilt, DEP assigned the same Supervisors to dismantle the road and return the land to its natural state.

In May, the arbitrator ordered DEP to cease and desist, and to compensate Mejias for 176 hours and Vaughn for 50 hours at the higher pay rate of Supervisors of Highway Repairers. The Watershed Maintainers in Local 376 received the higher pay of Construction Laborers.

"This is a good win," Mejias said. "Without DC 37, we would not have gotten any compensation. I have three young sons ages 6 to 10 and they spent the extra money quickly."

"This victory came at a good time," said Gervasi. "The union is winning cases and we still have a lot of outstanding grievances against DEP. When the members stand with their union, we fight and we win."