RI union leaders to meet again on contract plan

PROVIDENCE—The president of Rhode Island’s largest state employees union said Thursday he would present a new proposal to union leaders aimed at averting a state shutdown and layoffs after a previous deal was rejected.

J. Michael Downey, president of Council 94, said he had scheduled a meeting for 1 p.m. Friday to lay out the new plan. He said he hoped the new language would ease union members’ concerns about the state’s ability to move workers between jobs and be acceptable to workers and to the governor.

“If he’d like to avoid layoffs, we’re going to give him a proposal that would do just that,“ Downey said.

But Gov. Don Carcieri, who on Wednesday vowed to proceed with layoff plans after Council 94 leaders rejected his latest proposal, reiterated that he was done negotiating. The governor initially threatened to lay off 1,000 workers, though it would likely be fewer than that now that other unions have indicated they’ll accept the cost-cutting deal.

“Every time I negotiate, and get someplace and somebody says yes, and then it’s a no,“ Carcieri said on WPRO-AM. “And I can’t negotiate that way.“

Council 94, which represents 4,000 of the state’s approximately 13,500 workers, said earlier Thursday that it was willing to accept a proposal that would have state employees work 12 days without pay
and put off a raise. But the union said the current proposal would mean employees could be randomly reassigned to different jobs, undermining job security.

The administration set an Oct. 2 deadline for the state’s more than one dozen unions to approve the deal. Carcieri said unions that don’t approve it will be subject to layoffs because he needs to cut costs somewhere.

The state faces a $68 million budget deficit for the fiscal year ending in June.

Carcieri spokeswoman Amy Kempe said if every union approved the tentative agreement, the state would save approximately $18 million this fiscal year, and approximately $18.3 million next year. The
rest of the gap would be made up by cuts in operating costs and by withholding vehicle excise taxes from cities and towns, she said.

Kempe said the state would not know until after Oct. 2 how many people would need to be laid off to achieve the savings.

“We can’t proceed with a solid layoff plan until we know who’s participating and who’s not,“ she said.

Kempe said the agreement would allow the state to move employees between jobs in different agencies, but only until June 2011 and only with several weeks notice.

Transferred employees would not lose wages, hours or health benefits, she said. She said the language was included because unions wanted guarantees of no layoffs until June 2011, but the governor needed flexibility because of the uncertain state of the economy.

Some of the state’s unions are on board with the contract changes, but others are still considering it, including unions that represent workers at the state Department of Transportation and the state Department of Health, leaders of those unions said.

Brendan Fogarty, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Local 400, which represents about 400 workers from clerical employees to engineers with PhDs at
the Department of Transportation, said his union was scheduled to vote Oct. 1. Before then, there are several unanswered questions.

Fogarty says his union has very little impact on the state budget because they are mostly funded from the federal government and the gas tax.

“Why would we participate in this if there is no effect on the state budget?“ he said. “I need to see their numbers.“