PEP, May 2010: Local 1320 wins big victory in long wage fight

Local 1320 members will receive hefty raises and back pay under a settlement that brings a grueling eight-year wage fight to a successful close.

The agreement provides for a 63 percent wage increase from 2002 to 2008. The Sewage Treatment Workers and Sr. STWs voted 700-32 in favor of the pact in a mail ballot tabulated April 9 by the impartial American Arbitration Association.

“This was a very long and painful fight,” Local 1320 President James Tucciarelli said. “But the resounding ‘yes’ vote shows that our members overwhelmingly feel that we have won a just settlement.”

Local 1320 reached agreement with the city during a marathon bargaining session on March 15.

Until then, the city had refused to negotiate seriously with the union over a pay rate established through an investigation by the New York City Comptroller.

In 2002, the members of Local 1320 voted to have their wages set through a “prevailing-rate” procedure available to certain blue-collar locals under Section 220 of the state Labor Law. In the complicated process, the comptroller uses a survey to match their compensation with private-sector employees who do comparable work.

But the process allowed for torturous delays. The investigation took a long time and then the city put up roadblocks to prevent implementation of the results. Meanwhile, workers faced tremendous financial burdens as they struggled to support their families while living without pay increases for eight years.

“I am proud of our members for sticking together and holding out for the settlement,” Tucciarelli said. “This was trade unionism at its finest. They faced marital problems, bankruptcies and foreclosures, but they didn’t cave in.”

Under the settlement, the workers will see their annual pay increase to $73,000 a year from a range of $31,000 to $48,000. As a compromise to reach the agreement, the city agreed to drop a step-pay plan and instead have everyone get the same rate. The agreement reduces annual sick leave from 12 to six days a year and slows the pace at which members accumulate vacation days.

The Dept. of Environmental Protection will implement the new pay rate and give members the first of three retroactive payments on May 14. The other two installments of back pay will come on June 11 and July 23. The settlement matches the Local 1320 members’ compensation with that of Operating Mechanics at Consolidated Edison.

At the end of last year, the city’s Office of Labor Relations notified the union that it planned to go to court to contest an administrative law judge’s ruling in favor of the comptroller’s survey.

The breakthrough occurred on Christmas Day when Tucciarelli met informally with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and incoming Dept. of Environmental Protection Commissioner Cas Holloway at a news conference on another matter at a sewage treatment plant. Bloomberg pledged to resolve the issue within a couple months and former Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler pushed along the settlement process. The city’s court appeal of the comptroller’s determination was pending when the parties settled.

In reaching the agreement, the 20-member Local 1320 Negotiating Committee worked closely with DC 37 General Counsel Mary J. O’Connell and Director Dennis Sullivan and Assistant Director Heath Madom of the DC 37 Research and Negotiations Dept.

Besides Local 1320, Construction Laborers and Highway Repairers in Local 376 and Supervising Highway Repairers in Local 1157 have won wage agreements through the survey process. Laborers Local 924 and Locksmiths and Radio Repair Mechanics in Prevailing Rate Local 1087 are in the midst of pay disputes.

“Our experience shows that you can achieve justice through the survey route,” Tucciarelli said.

“But the fact that this can drag on for so long shows that the process is broken and ultimately must be repaired through legislation. We hope our case will put pressure on the city to agree to a settlement in the near future with our fellow union members in locals 924 and 1087,” he said.