ESR Representation Battle: Board Ruling Sets Off Union Contest

ESR Representation Battle
Board Ruling Sets Off Union Contest

By HOWARD MEGDAL

The city's Office of Collective Bargaining ruled last month that city workers in Enrollment Sales Representative and ESR Assistant titles, both within the Health and Hospital Corporation's MetroPlus Health Plan, may unionize, setting off an election battle over who will represent them. The Organization of Staff Analysts, which originally petitioned OCB, will face District Council 37 Local 1549, which subsequently intervened in the OCB process, in an election. Fellow intervener Communications Workers of America Local 1180 will not contest OSA's claim, CWA President Arthur Cheliotes said.

ROBERT J. CROGHAN: Resents DC 37's intrusion.

OSA: No Deal with DC 37

OSA Chairperson Robert J. Croghan said efforts to reach a compromise with Local 1549 President Eddie Rodriguez were unsuccessful.

"I approached Eddie Rodriguez and suggested that since we'd done all the work here, perhaps there were other titles he'd pursue," Mr. Croghan said in a June 29 phone interview. "I also offered our organizers to help collect these other titles."

Mr. Croghan said he regretted that an election was necessary. "It would have been better for workers if he'd cooperated on this one. People would have been represented much more quickly. These workers have no protections while this unnecessary fight goes on."

EDDIE RODRIGUEZ: Joined the fray late. Mr. Rodriguez did not respond to calls seeking comment, but DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts said in a statement that "we welcome the decision by OCB to allow these workers the right to be represented. We look forward to a fair election."

While Mr. Cheliotes did not take sides in the election, he said, "I think it is just a further delay of these people getting representation" in a June 29 phone interview.

HHC's argument, that ESRs' "access to proprietary marketing information that should not be revealed to MetroPlus's competitors, whose Board of Directors includes officials of unions that are members of the Municipal Labor Committee," did not convince OCB.

A spokesman for HHC referred inquiries to MetroPlus, which did not return calls seeking comment.

The election will most likely be held in the fall, according to Mr. Croghan.

HHC and the OSA had agreed to a three-year moratorium on representing ESRs in 1994, in exchange for HHC withdrawing an objection to union representation of Healthcare Program Planning Analysts. When the freeze ended, OSA began organizing ESRs again. "Every time we let them keep people for a while, we have to go after them again," Mr. Croghan said. "And every time, we win."