On Binding Arbitration and Union Compromise:
Statement from the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals
CCTA BUS DRIVERS SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE
PRESS RELEASE
For Information:
Tristin Adie, Chief Steward, Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals
[email protected]
March 17, 2014
On Binding Arbitration and Union Compromise:
Statement from the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals
As union members committed to winning dignity and respect in the workplace, we are dismayed with the latest attempt by CCTA management to manipulate the public’s understanding of their dispute with the bus drivers. With their insistence on binding arbitration, management has claimed to have placed the ball back in the court of the drivers. They would have us believe that they can do nothing to help create a just solution.
This is the worst sort of cynicism. After refusing to budge on key issues during the last 10 months of negotiations, management now calls on the union to offer a “compromise proposal” in order to restart a dialogue. Yet a compromise proposal from management has never been put forward. Management has forced the drivers to strike by refusing to engage in an honest, respectful discussion of the drivers’ very basic demands for sane shifts, fair disciplinary and grievance procedures, and humane working conditions.
Failing a compromise proposal from the union, management argues that moving toward binding arbitration is the only other means of resolving the strike. As union members, we find this quite problematic. Negotiations are meant to be forums for two parties to engage in good-faith dialogue with one another, in order to find a settlement that is acceptable to both.
Binding arbitration places all decision-making in the hands of a third party, someone with no relationship to the workplace or community directly affected by his or her decision. Not only does this decrease the likelihood that an arbitrator will craft a solution that works for a majority of workers and community members; it also means that no one is accountable once that decision is put into practice.
Some drivers have told us that they don’t trust that a just solution can be created by someone who has never driven a bus. We agree; we shudder to think of what someone who has never worked in a hospital would deem appropriate for patient care.
Further, binding arbitration actually discourages honest, respectful, creative negotiating. Management is under less pressure to meet the demands of the drivers if they feel an arbitrator will impose even worse conditions. Rather than wash their hands of the negotiating process, CCTA management needs to sit back down at the table and listen, really listen, to the grievances of the drivers. The overwhelming unity demonstrated by the drivers in every imaginable arena over the past 10 months speaks volumes about the toxic work environment management has created. Management has the power to change this dynamic.
We offer our full support to the bus drivers in rejecting the CCTA’s call for binding arbitration. Moreover, we call on management to take seriously the call for a “compromise proposal”--by offering up one themselves.
Tristin Adie, APRN, Chief Steward, Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals
PRESS RELEASE
For Information:
Tristin Adie, Chief Steward, Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals
[email protected]
March 17, 2014
On Binding Arbitration and Union Compromise:
Statement from the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals
As union members committed to winning dignity and respect in the workplace, we are dismayed with the latest attempt by CCTA management to manipulate the public’s understanding of their dispute with the bus drivers. With their insistence on binding arbitration, management has claimed to have placed the ball back in the court of the drivers. They would have us believe that they can do nothing to help create a just solution.
This is the worst sort of cynicism. After refusing to budge on key issues during the last 10 months of negotiations, management now calls on the union to offer a “compromise proposal” in order to restart a dialogue. Yet a compromise proposal from management has never been put forward. Management has forced the drivers to strike by refusing to engage in an honest, respectful discussion of the drivers’ very basic demands for sane shifts, fair disciplinary and grievance procedures, and humane working conditions.
Failing a compromise proposal from the union, management argues that moving toward binding arbitration is the only other means of resolving the strike. As union members, we find this quite problematic. Negotiations are meant to be forums for two parties to engage in good-faith dialogue with one another, in order to find a settlement that is acceptable to both.
Binding arbitration places all decision-making in the hands of a third party, someone with no relationship to the workplace or community directly affected by his or her decision. Not only does this decrease the likelihood that an arbitrator will craft a solution that works for a majority of workers and community members; it also means that no one is accountable once that decision is put into practice.
Some drivers have told us that they don’t trust that a just solution can be created by someone who has never driven a bus. We agree; we shudder to think of what someone who has never worked in a hospital would deem appropriate for patient care.
Further, binding arbitration actually discourages honest, respectful, creative negotiating. Management is under less pressure to meet the demands of the drivers if they feel an arbitrator will impose even worse conditions. Rather than wash their hands of the negotiating process, CCTA management needs to sit back down at the table and listen, really listen, to the grievances of the drivers. The overwhelming unity demonstrated by the drivers in every imaginable arena over the past 10 months speaks volumes about the toxic work environment management has created. Management has the power to change this dynamic.
We offer our full support to the bus drivers in rejecting the CCTA’s call for binding arbitration. Moreover, we call on management to take seriously the call for a “compromise proposal”--by offering up one themselves.
Tristin Adie, APRN, Chief Steward, Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals
Media Alert - March 18th, 2014
Community educates Burlington City Council on why binding arbitration is a bad idea.
The Community urges CCTA management to end strike and come to the table to settle a fair deal
Where: City Hall, Burlington VT
When: 8AM Wednesday March 19, 2014 - Update: The Council meeting was cancelled by Council President Joan Shannon stating that it was not properly warned.
What: At the emergency City Council meeting, 50 community supporters and drivers are turning out to Burlington City Council meeting to educate Counsellors on the negative aspects of binding arbitration.
BACKGROUND: CCTA management requested that the bus drivers agree to binding arbitration to settle a contract this week. CCTA Bus drivers have rejected this this offer to have a contract imposed on them. Rather, they have offered to resume negotiations tomorrow. That offer was declined by management.
We believe that drivers rejected binding arbitration for the same reasons they rejected management’s last proposal. Management and their lawyer, don’t have to live under the terms of their proposed contract. The drivers do. Agreeing to binding arbitration does not move the drivers closer to having safer working conditions, safer conditions for passengers, other drivers, or jobs with dignity. Reaching an agreement where the drivers feel good about going to work free from predatory management is the goal.
The bus drivers have outlined core issues of unfair treatment in the workplace with increased surveillance on buses and at the central worksite, unilateral changes to physical access to breaks while on duty, and proposed changes to increase work shifts that are already set at 12.5 hours.
Tomorrow the Burlington city council has set a special meeting to consider a resolution in support of binding arbitration to resolve the labor/management dispute. The Community Solidarity Committee believes this city council (which will meet in the absence of all 3 current progressive councilors who penned a statement of support of the drivers) is moving forward with a proposal without a real understanding of the implications of binding arbitration. Members of the Burlington community and CCTA drivers will come to the the meeting to explain in more detail why the drivers would reject that offer and intend to resolve the contract through mutual agreement.
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The Community urges CCTA management to end strike and come to the table to settle a fair deal
Where: City Hall, Burlington VT
When: 8AM Wednesday March 19, 2014 - Update: The Council meeting was cancelled by Council President Joan Shannon stating that it was not properly warned.
What: At the emergency City Council meeting, 50 community supporters and drivers are turning out to Burlington City Council meeting to educate Counsellors on the negative aspects of binding arbitration.
BACKGROUND: CCTA management requested that the bus drivers agree to binding arbitration to settle a contract this week. CCTA Bus drivers have rejected this this offer to have a contract imposed on them. Rather, they have offered to resume negotiations tomorrow. That offer was declined by management.
We believe that drivers rejected binding arbitration for the same reasons they rejected management’s last proposal. Management and their lawyer, don’t have to live under the terms of their proposed contract. The drivers do. Agreeing to binding arbitration does not move the drivers closer to having safer working conditions, safer conditions for passengers, other drivers, or jobs with dignity. Reaching an agreement where the drivers feel good about going to work free from predatory management is the goal.
The bus drivers have outlined core issues of unfair treatment in the workplace with increased surveillance on buses and at the central worksite, unilateral changes to physical access to breaks while on duty, and proposed changes to increase work shifts that are already set at 12.5 hours.
Tomorrow the Burlington city council has set a special meeting to consider a resolution in support of binding arbitration to resolve the labor/management dispute. The Community Solidarity Committee believes this city council (which will meet in the absence of all 3 current progressive councilors who penned a statement of support of the drivers) is moving forward with a proposal without a real understanding of the implications of binding arbitration. Members of the Burlington community and CCTA drivers will come to the the meeting to explain in more detail why the drivers would reject that offer and intend to resolve the contract through mutual agreement.
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