Council 2 files ULP against district

COUNCIL 2 has filed an unfair labor practice against Northshore Utility District. The union alleges that the district bargained in bad faith and retaliated against employees for their union activity.

The filing with the Public Employment Relations Commission follows 2½ years of increasingly tense negotiations over a new contract between the district and its 40 employees, who are all members of Local 1024.

During this time the district has proposed rewriting the entire contract, thereby taking away rights the union has had since it formed 10 years ago, including union security, which is regarded as a fundamental issue in any collective bargaining agreement.

In early October the district rebuffed offers to meet with a state mediator.

“By refusing to negotiate in good faith the commissioners have made it clear that they want to break the union,” says Council 2 Deputy Director Pat Thompson. “Now that they have made it clear that they will not even meet with a state mediator that’s simply the last straw.”

The row between the union and the district commissioners began when — during negotiations on a contract that expired in 2006 — the union called for one of the commissioners to step down from his paid role as the district’s labor consultant while he was serving as an elected official.

The commissioner refused to step aside and, at the union’s prompting, the State legislature passed a bill to outlaw the practice.

After that, the issue turned into a political vendetta by the district against the union.

The district’s attorney and human resources manager assured the union’s negotiating team that the proposal to eliminate union security would be withdrawn if the union and the district agreed on other issues. When those agreements were reached, the district reneged on its commitment, Thompson says.

The dispute went to mediation, but the board of commissioners refused to meet with the state mediator. The mediator put forward a recommendation that would settle all outstanding issues and recommended that they be submitted to an arbitrator. But the commissioners refused to abide by the mediator’s recommendation.

The union’s unfair labor practice charge will include the fact that employees were terminated due to their union activity and the district manager refused to deal with the union’s staff representative.

“This is classic union busting and most employees have hung in there despite the underhanded tactics of management, says Thompson.

Two local unions passed resolutions supporting the members of the Northshore Utility local.

Local 3845, Bothell City employees, and Local 1837, City of Kirkland, both resolved to go on record in support of Local 1024 “in their just struggle against the unjust and illegal actions of the Northshore Utility’s commissioner and management team.” The resolution added, “That our officers and membership contact the Northshore Utility District and express our outrage over their anti-union/anti-employee actions and demand that they immediately agree to the state mediator’s proposed settlement.”