SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP Union wants SERB to revisit charge of unfair-labor practice

The union says employees faced getting fired unless they took a pay cut.
By MARY GRZEBIENIAK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NEW SPRINGFIELD -- The International Union of Operating Engineers has filed an appeal of the dismissal of an unfair-labor-practice charge against Springfield Township.
IOP representative Joe Beasley of Pittsburgh said he provided an affidavit from a new witness, whose identity is confidential, to the State Employment Relations Board.
SERB had dismissed the original charge, which was filed after township trustees and the township's two road maintenance employees disagreed over 2003 wages and benefits.
Beasley said the union charged that employees were threatened with loss of their jobs if they did not take a pay cut.
Road Superintendent Richard Kennedy said the original charge was filed after he and road employee Eric Mace met with trustees in January, expecting they would receive the same 4 percent increase as the police department did.
Kennedy said it has been the practice in the township for years to give the road department the same percentage as the police union negotiated. Instead, Kennedy said the two were asked to take a cut in pay, go on salary and make other concessions.
When the two refused, Kennedy said one trustee threatened to fire them. Kennedy said that though the threat was not carried out, the two were given only a 2 percent pay raise and told that next year they will be put on salary.
Major concern
Kennedy said this means that he and Mace will lose the time-and-a-half pay they get for coming out after hours and on holidays to do their job.
Kennedy said he did not consider joining a union until after the January meeting with trustees. He said he contacted a lawyer after the meeting and was advised his only recourse was to join a union. Only then, he said, did he and Mace sign cards to join the Operating Engineers Local 66.
Kennedy said he doesn't know why he was asked to take a pay cut or why trustees want to change the road jobs to an hourly basis. He said in his 20 years of working for the township, he was never disciplined and never missed a snow day.
He said the township is contending that his job is management, but Kennedy said he does not believe his duties can be classified this way.
Beasley said that a hearing on whether the two maintenance workers will be recognized as an IOP bargaining unit is set for Aug. 20.
He said that he hopes that a decision on the appeal of the unfair-labor-practice charge will be handed down in 45 days.