Union leaders reject deal to stop RI shutdown

NORTH PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The heads of Rhode Island's largest state employees' union on Wednesday rejected a deal struck with Gov. Don Carcieri's administration to avoid a shutdown of state government or 1,000 layoffs, prompting the governor to say he'd go ahead with the firings - though likely on a smaller scale.

Joe Peckham, acting executive director of Council 94, which represents 4,000 state workers, said the union's roughly two dozen presidents rejected the deal by a wide margin, even though negotiators had recommended they approve it.

Carcieri said several other unions had agreed to the tentative deal. Those that didn't would be subject to layoffs, he said, because the state is facing a $68 million budget gap.

"We've got to move forward 'cause I've got to get the savings," he said. "We're losing time."

Carcieri said last month that he would shut down state government as one step to help close the deficit for the fiscal year ending in June.

He planned to order 80 percent of the state's 13,500-member work force to stay home without pay for 12 days before July. But a judge put that plan on hold earlier this month after the union took the
state to court. After that, Carcieri said he would have no choice but to lay off 1,000 workers.

He didn't specify Wednesday evening how many workers he planned to lay off but said he assumed it would be fewer than 1,000.

"It would seem to follow that logic," Carcieri spokeswoman Amy Kempe said, but added that the administration first "needs to look at the numbers."

The deal approved by other unions guaranteed that their members would be protected from layoffs until June 2011, leaders of two of those unions said.

Carcieri encouraged Council 94's members to join the agreement. Council 94 President J. Michael Downey said its leadership was still willing to negotiate, although the governor said he was done bargaining.

Peckham said he was bracing for the governor to take the worst possible action, but said there were other ways, such as raising taxes on the wealthy or curbing the use of private contractors, to accomplish the same ends.

"State workers have given enough. For the past two and a half, three years they have given and given and given," he said.

Rhode Island has struggled for years with massive budget deficits, and in recent years has laid off workers, cut retirement benefits and forced workers to forgo pay raises, among other steps.

Under a compromise deal reached two weeks ago, state workers would lose 12 days of pay between now and June 2011. They would also put off a planned pay raise. In return, they would get more
vacation time and could get some lost pay back when they retire or leave their jobs.

That plan stalled when Carcieri said he wanted more freedom to move state workers from one job to another.

After several more days of negotiations, the sides struck a tentative deal around midnight Tuesday that would allow Carcieri to reassign state employees to different jobs, said Philip Keefe, president of the Rhode Island Alliance of Social Service Employees Local 580. Unionized workers with more seniority would have greater protections against being moved than less experienced workers, he said.

Keefe said he believes the compromise is good because it protects employees from layoffs and will keep government open for its citizens. He said the executive board of his union, which represents 850 to 900 state workers, would decide tomorrow whether to send it to its members for a vote.

Frank Ciccone, business agent for Local 808 of the Laborers International Union of North America, said Council 94's decision did not affect his union, which had already accepted the deal.

"Was everyone happy? No," said Ciccone, who is also a state senator. "It's something that we feel we might be able to live with."

Associated Press writers Michelle R. Smith and Ray Henry contributed to this report.