Pyle Rome Alleges Town of Franklin Coordinating Campaign to Defeat JLMC Arbitration Award; Rally Planned 530 p.m.
Pyle Rome Attorneys Leah Barrault and Patrick Bryant have filed an unfair labor practice on behalf of Franklin Fire Fighters, Local 2637 IAFF, alleging that Town Administrator is coordinating a campaign to defeat a unanimous arbitration award from a neutral panel. The Town Administrator has a duty to unconditionally support funding the Award. The campaign is believed to involve lobbying of individual Council members, prohibiting individual Councillors from meeting with the Union, and private Council deliberations outside of the public eye.
The Union anticipates that the Department of Labor Relations will schedule a hearing on the filing and quickly convene a preliminary hearing to determine whether to issue a complaint against the Town of Franklin. The Town will be expected to attend the hearing and respond to the allegations.
The basis of the charge is as follows:
The Town of Franklin, via its Town Administrator, Town Attorney and outside Labor Counsel, has violated its duty to bargain in good faith, its duty to participate in mediation/arbitration in good faith, its duty to unconditionally support funding of a collective bargaining agreement, and its duty not to discriminate or retaliate on the basis of union membership. A unanimous arbitration panel, appointed by the Joint Labor Management Committee, issued an award on or about May 31, 2015. The unanimous award provides an economic package greater than what the Town proposed. The panel specifically found that the Town could afford to pay the Award economic items. Per the JLMC statute, the economic items of Award do not take effect unless they are funded by the legislative body. The elected, nine-member Town Council is the legislative body for Franklin. Town Administrator Jeff Nutting subsequently placed an appropriations request to the Town Council. The Council is scheduled to discuss the request at its June 24, 2015 meeting. The Council has scheduled at least part of the discussion during executive session. While Chapter 150E, under settled interpretation by the Commonwealth Employment Relations Board, clearly mandates that a municipality's executive branch must unequivocally and vigorously support a request to fund a JLMC award, Nutting by information and belief, has lobbied Town Council members individually and collectively to reject his funding request. The Union understands that Nutting has claimed, erroneously, that the Town cannot afford the Award, and has approvingly cited Watertown Council's recent refusal to fund a JLMC award. Further, Nutting has conscripted labor counsel Phil Collins to appear during the executive session to discuss the Award, even though he does not represent the Council and even though Town Attorney Mark has affirmed that discussion of the Award must occur in public. It is believed that Nutting has requested Collins to appear in order to advise the Council how to deny the funding request. While Nutting is believed to have directly or indirectly lobbied councilors to oppose funding of the Award, he also has, abetted by Attorney Cerel, effectively prohibited Town Councilors from meeting individually or otherwise with representatives of the Union. Nutting and Cerel suggested that any meetings by any Town Council member with the Union violate the Massachusetts open meetings law. They have made this claim even though Nutting is believed to have met with Council members on this same matter and even though Nutting supports Council's discussion of the Award in executive session. Nutting solicited Cerel's opinion on whether Councillors can meet with the union, effectively inducing the prohibition on such meetings, and Nutting subsequently blasted Cerel's opinion to all Council members (i.e., a quorum) at once. A copy of the email chain is attached. Based on the foregoing, the Town violated various provisions of Chapter 150E by failing to unconditionally request funding for an award, by privately sabotaging of the funding request, by discriminating against union supporters who may discuss the award with Councillors based upon of violates violated various provisions of Chapter 150E.
A letter from Pyle Rome to the Town's labor counsel is attached.
The Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts has organized a rally in support of Local 2637 for Wednesday, June 24, 2015, 5:30 p.m. at Franklin Town Hall.
