In a unanimous decision, the Board of Collective Bargaining recently ruled that the Dept. of Environmental Protection retaliated against a Local 376 member for union activity when it tried to fire him in September 2003.

“I feel vindicated,” said Watershed Maintainer Robert Weaver, a 20-year DEP veteran. “The possibility of termination frightened me. Many employees would have taken a plea and not gone to the mat. But I knew I was right.” BCB also reversed a 60-day suspension imposed by the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings and awarded him back pay with interest.

Mr. Weaver’s activity as a shop steward and health and safety chair brought him into conflict with management. During a Labor Dept. inspection in April, he reported safety hazards such as the agency’s failure to provide first aid kits for Maintainers who operate chainsaws, to train workers in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, and to develop a plan to minimize workers’ exposure to blood-borne diseases. As a result, the state cited DEP for eight “serious violations.”

Five months later when the backhoe Weaver was driving flipped over and slid down a muddy embankment, DEP said, “Fire him.” “DEP has been very hard on members,” said Local 376 President Gene DeMartino, who represents Watershed Maintainers at the upstate reservoirs.

“My conversations with management set off a red flag,” said Local 376 Secretary Treasurer Tom Kattou. “I sensed Weaver was being singled out because of his union activity — and that’s illegal.”

The local leaders filed improper practice charges with BCB in January. With labor lawyer Stewart Lichten, they showed that DEP never penalized other workers who had accidents as harshly as it did Mr. Weaver.

BCB concluded that DEP’s severe discipline of Weaver was anti-union and a clear attempt to silence the Local 376 whistleblower. The decision read: “DEP retaliated against Weaver, the only Local 376 representative who participated in health and safety issues in his region, when, because of his union activities, DEP treated him differently from the way it treated other Watershed Maintainers who experienced similar vehicular accidents.”

“Overall, this is a great win,” said Mr. DeMartino. “Had DEP been reasonable from the start, they could have avoided the embarrassment of having BCB show them up as an unfair employer for the second time this year.”

“It was a team effort,” Mr. Weaver said. “Without Tommy Kattou, Gene De Martino and a good lawyer we would not have won.”