TWU says township layoff plan an attempt to 'break the union'

The Transport Workers Union has asked for an injunction to stop the pending layoffs of a number of Brick Township personnel.

The TWU Local 225 Branch 4 has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the township with the state Public Employment Relations Commission.

The TWU wants PERC to grant the request to stay the layoffs until a hearing can be held on the layoff plan itself, which union officials say is unfair.

"There can be no question that this is an attempt by the township to break the union," the TWU complaint states.

Both Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis and Township Administrator Scott M. Pezarras declined to comment on the charge.

"Only because it's a matter of pending litigation," Pezarras said. "We have been advised by labor counsel not to comment until after the hearing."

But Pezarras said that if the injunction is granted, the nearly $4 million budget shortfall facing the township in 2009 will grow.

"Obviously, it will have an impact," Pezarras said. "What we are concerned about is if it will result in a further deficit the longer it goes on."

A PERC conference call among a judge, the TWU and the township was slated for Dec. 10.

The TWU represents roughly 225 bluecollar workers employed by the township. The TWU's contract expired almost a year ago, on Dec. 31, 2007.

The union and the township met 13 times this year in an effort to hammer out an agreement. On Sept. 19, the township offered a three-year contract with wage increases for 2008, 2009, and 2010 in the amount of 2.6 percent, 2.85 percent and 3 percent, respectively, according to the PERC complaint.

The union membership rejected the contract terms, said Susan Resch, the TWU's international vice president.

"It was overwhelmingly against it," she said.

But the township gave no indication of the magnitude of the layoffs and the financial problems anticipated in 2009 during the negotiations, said both Resch and Christopher Mikkelson, president of the union local.

The township is unfairly targeting the public works department, while moving other employees into the Parks and Recreation Department, he said.

"They are not targeting everyone according to seniority," Mikkelson said.

Until earlier this year, parks fell under the aegis of the Public Works Department. But Acropolis combined parks with the recreation department under the township's new restructuring plan.

The restructuring plan affected the "bumping rights" of union employees in the Public Works Department, some of whom have seniority over those moved to the parks department, Mikkelson said.

"It looks like a calculated move to move parks out of DPW [Department of Public Works] and put it into recreation," he said.

Council President Ruthanne Scaturro's son now works in parks and recreation, he said.

"Some other friends of the administration have been put in there," he said. "If you are going to lay people off, it should be those titles, from the junior person up, no matter what department you are in."

Employees cannot bump a person in another department, Mikkelson said.

But by restructuring and moving parks to the recreation department, a public works employee who may have many years of service cannot bump someone with a similar title in parks, he said.

"They targeted public works," Mikkelson said. "That's legal, but it ain't right. They didn't target recreation or parks. They did it so they could protect their own from layoffs."

Acropolis and other township officials have blamed the looming budget shortfall on the state-imposed 4 percent cap on the amount that can be raised by taxation from year to year.