Massachusetts AFL-CIO Testimony Before Joint Standing Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight

Tim Sullivan, MA AFL-CIO Testimony ~ Tuesday October 2, 2007 ~ 10:30 AM ~ Room 222

Hearing before Joint Standing Committee on:
STATE ADMINISTRATION & REGULATORY OVERSIGHT

Bill: Governor’s Article 87 Re-Organization of Key Public Employee-Management Relations Agencies (HB 4244)

Remarks: 
Good morning Madame Chair and Chairman Cabral. Thank you for the opportunity to testify in support of House Bill 4244, the Governor’s re-organization of key public employee-management relations agencies. I will be very brief because this is a bill whose merits and substance will undoubtedly sell themselves.

My name is Tim Sullivan and I am the Legislative and Communications Director of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. I am testifying on behalf of President Bob Haynes, who apologizes for not being able to join you today, and on behalf of the over 400,000 working families in the Commonwealth. I am here today to urge you to report this bill out favorably and to ensure its speedy enactment into law. While others are here to speak to the specific merits of this important bill, I am here to make a broader case that it is absolutely critical that you pass this bill and that you do so as soon as possible. First, I must express our sincere gratitude to Secretary Bump, Director Noel, their team and this Governor for taking the time to address something that is long overdue for fixing.

As the largest labor organization in the Commonwealth, the state AFL-CIO has the privilege and duty to represent the vast majority of public sector unions impacted by this re-organization. We speak for teachers, police, fire fighters, members of AFSCME, court employees, school administrators, and many others. You will hear from or receive written testimony from nearly all of them regarding this bill.

To a union, everyone that has dealt with the Labor Relations Commission and the public employee-management relations system in this Commonwealth has had major complaints about the inability of these agencies to carry out anything resembling their true purposes. A major impetus for why organized labor spent sixteen years trying to elect a Governor like Deval Patrick was the inefficiency of these agencies and, dare I say it, the disdain with which past gubernatorial appointees to these agencies approached their duties. Should this re-organization be adopted, and we believe it should be, the days of purposefully delaying justice for public sector workers will, like the past four governors, be merely a reflection in our rearview mirror.

Our public sector unions and their employees have found these agencies so incapable, so inadequate, and so unfair that they have stopped using them to address grievances. Imagine the impact of that on public employees’ morale? What does that say about our government’s commitment to justice? The very system set up to deliver justice for public workers has become so woefully broken that it is not even worth using anymore. That is a travesty of justice and an insult to the sacrifices and contributions of all our public employees.

It has become fashionable of late to point to public workers, collectively, as a problem in our government. Our op-ed pages and think tanks are rife with anti-public worker viewpoints and “studies.” While it might be popular to besmirch the good works of public employees as a group, it is entirely unfair and based on completely inaccurate portrayals of who these public sector workers are and what momentous contributions they make to the daily lives of this Commonwealth’s citizens.

Collectively, they are a popular target. However, when looked at as individuals – as teachers, as police officers, as fire fighters and the like – no one can find anything but praise for their contributions. The work of public employees delivers in large part the very fabric of what we believe defines society, community, and government. A broken employee-management relations system impacts real individual lives. The very people we praise as individuals are as a group getting denied resolutions to their problems on the job.

Shouldn’t the adjudicatory agencies meant to deliver justice for public workers actually work? That’s what this re-organization seeks to do: to fix an unrecognizably broken system and make it work again. Remember the old saying during historic social movement struggles, “Justice delayed is justice denied.” That is not just a saying that applies to civil rights or women’s rights; it must also apply to workers’ rights. And the current system chronically delays justice for all  public employees, thereby denying justice for so many individual workers. You will hear specific examples of these problems from our public employee unions today.

Think about the lesser known public employees like graduate students and RA’s at UMass. What good does it do a college student to file a grievance that takes 5 or 6 or even 7 years to be resolved, when they are only in college for 4 years?

Think about a professional fire fighter or police officer who is approaching retirement age, files a grievance, and has been retired for 5 years and living in another state before the final outcome of that grievance finally comes down?

The backlog in cases is unacceptable. The delay between the onset of a grievance and the final result is unconscionable, not to mention impractical. Justice is being delayed and denied, and it is the result of a systematic dismantling of the effectiveness and efficiency of these agencies.

The past four governors didn’t want government to work. They preached “good government” on the campaign trail, and sought to make sure government was anything but good once in office. It was this legislature that stood up to those governors for the last sixteen years. It was this legislature that protected and espoused the notion of good government. We are asking you to do that again here today. By agreeing with our current Governor, and adopting this re-organization, you will once again be able to stand up to and correct the wrongs of the past four governors.

I know many of you might miss the last four governors and the opportunity to tell them when they’re wrong and work to correct their mistakes. Sometimes, if you can believe it, my boss Bob Haynes misses the chance to yell at a Republic governor. Well, here’s another chance for this legislature to do the right thing and fix a misguided, unfair, unjust by-product of the anti-worker, anti-union, anti-government attitudes of the governors who dismantled this system of worker justice one appointment and one skimpy budget at a time. Here’s a chance to say you honor the work of public employees and value their right to pursue justice when they perceive they are wronged on the job. Here is a chance to join our current Governor in making sure that the last four governors are, in fact, not closer in the rearview mirror than they may appear.

For these reasons we urge a favorable report. Thank you.