Public Employee Press

Local 1070
Court staff battle layoffs

Local 1070 leaders met recently with the Office of Court Administration and the Unified Court System to combat a misguided plan that has laid off about 94 members.

"We are fighting for every job and we are asking for transparency in OCA's process," said Cliff Koppelman, president of the Court, County and Dept. of Probation Employees local.

Twice he formally requested OCA seniority lists to check whether the May and June layoffs complied with the law, but management is "stonewalling us," he said. The local wants to compare the OCA lists with union records "to make sure Chief Clerks are not unfairly targeting anyone to be laid off or bumped," said White Collar Division Assistant Director Chris Wilgenkamp.

"The local advised laid-off members to ask to be put on preferred lists, which last four years, so they'll be first to be rehired," said Vice President Fausto Sabatino. The local will monitor the list.

While former Gov. David Paterson offered an early retirement incentive plan that ended last November, Gov. Andrew Cuomo cut funding for the courts and did not offer the incentive.

The DC37 Legal Dept. filed improper practice charges that question the legality of the layoffs; union leaders believe Chief Justice Jonathan Lippman may have violated the Taylor Law.

Local 1070 filed group and individual grievances charging violations of the contract, civil service law and a scheduling agreement. The charges involve overly long shifts without breaks, discrimination based on union activity and assignments of better-paid supervisors to do the jobs of Local 1070 clerical workers.

In May, Local 1070 bused 60 members to Albany to lobby the heads of the Senate and Assembly Judicial Committees and Democratic Senate Majority Leader John Sampson.

Local 1070 has been holding lunch-hour meetings with members at their work sites and keeping in close contact with laid-off members. On June 13, the union met with OCA to begin impact bargaining on the effects of the layoffs.

— DSW