Allege DEP is Back In Anti-Union Mode

By ARI PAUL

The Board of Collective Bargaining has rejected the city's motion to defer to arbitration a case in which a union alleged a city agency with a history of anti-labor bias retaliated against workers engaging in union activity.

Local 1322 of District Council 37 alleged that the Department of Environmental Protection wrongly disciplined two supervisors, David DeSilva and Jack Schmidt, for participating in union activities, and intimidated workers from being involved with the union.

Vacation Brouhaha

The department had disciplined Mr. DeSilva in August 2006 for making improper leave plans and charged that Mr. Schmidt had failed to properly supervise him. The union believed this was retaliation for the two contacting their union representatives when the department tried to cancel their previously approved vacation plans.

The board roundly rejected the city's reasoning that the issue should be deferred to arbitration.

"While the discipline imposed on Schmidt and DeSilva by DEP will be reviewed in the arbitral forum, there the arbitrators must determine whether the city complied with the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement in bringing disciplinary charges against Schmidt and DeSilva," the board's decision stated. "However, this will leave unresolved the statutory questions of interference and discrimination raised by the union in its petition."

The decision continued, "The matters to be resolved by the arbitrators are indeed inextricably entwined with the union's improper practice allegations in that they arise out of the same circumstances, yet the matter before the board in the improper practice is separate and distinct from that to be considered by the arbitrators."

Part of a Pattern

This is the latest case involving charges of anti-union bias in DEP. In December, the board ruled DEP Brooklyn Superintendent Louis DiMeglia, who had a history of retaliating against workers involved in union activity, went out of his way to file disciplinary charges against a Local 376 of DC 37 shop steward who testified on behalf of a colleague at a prior disciplinary hearing.

Local 1322 President Fred Ricci, who represents DEP supervisors, declined to comment.