Massachusetts AFL-CIO Testimony Before Joint Standing Committee on Public Service

Tim Sullivan, MA AFL-CIO Testimony ~ Thurs. November 15, 2007 ~ 10:30 AM ~ Room B-2

Hearing before Joint Standing Committee on:
PUBLIC SERVICE

Chair Jay R. Kaufman of Lexington Chair Anthony Galluccio
Vice Chair Linda Dorcena Forry of Boston Vice Chair Steven Tolman
Louis L. Kafka of Stoughton Jack Hart
William G. Greene, Jr. of Billerica Brian Joyce
John P. Fresolo of Worcester Gale Candaras
Christopher J. Donelan of Orange
William Smitty Pignatelli of Lenox
Thomas P. Conroy of Wayland
Allen J. McCarthy of East Bridgewater

Bill: An Act Relative to Binding Arbitration (SB 1627)

Sponsor: Senator Marc Pacheco

Affiliate(s) Concerned: Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association (MEBA)

Remarks:

Thank you to the Chairmen and committee members for the opportunity to testify here today.

For the record, my name is Tim Sullivan and I am the Legislative and Communications Director of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. Today I speak in support of Senate Bill 1627 on behalf of President Haynes and the 400,000 union families and over 700 local union affiliates of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO.

My remarks will be brief because this issue, to us, is incredibly simple.

My brothers and sisters in the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association, a proud affiliate of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, have amazingly been without a contract for four years. Four years of delay. Four years of denial. Four years of seemingly endless steps and stages with no end in sight. No collective bargaining unit, no union, should be forced to go through endless negotiations. The process that MEBA has been through is akin to a rat maze that goes on forever, with no cheese waiting at the final stop – because to date there has been no final stop. And without this legislation there will be no final stop.

These workers have negotiated endlessly, all along in good faith, with the Woods Hole, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority. They have been through regular negotiations. They have been through state mediation. They are now in what’s called fact finding, and they’ve been in fact finding for four months. The Steamship Authority is engaged in a time-tested strategy of waiting out the workers by dragging out negotiations. They’re attempting to weaken the union and weaken the workers, hoping the workers will just give up and give in. I’m proud that this union is still fighting to get a contract for its workers. I’m here today to join with these hard working marine engineers and say, “Enough is enough.”

Without binding arbitration this negotiation will become one of my favorite childhood movies, “The Neverending Story”. And we’ll be back here session after session asking this legislature to do the right thing by passing this law and instituting binding arbitration for these workers. We were here in 2005-2006 and this committee reported this bill out favorably, only to have it die in Rules and Ethics. We’re back again asking for this committee to do its part by once again reporting this bill out favorably. We are asking the legislature not to copy the behavior of the Steamship Authority by continuing to delay this legislation.

These workers, their union, deserve binding arbitration, and Senate Bill 1627 provides it for them. This legislation is modeled after the binding arbitration provided for in the laws pertaining to the state’s largest transportation agency, the MBTA. This legislation is fair to both sides. It simply says that after both parties have negotiated in good faith, mediated in good faith, and failed to come to an agreement despite all the good faith efforts, that binding arbitration will enact a reasonable conclusion in the form of a contract that takes into account the concerns of both the employer and the employees. This bill creates a finish line where there currently is none.

This legislation will right an incredible wrong done to these workers. The whole point of collective bargaining is to be able to join together to negotiate a contract that makes life better for all members. Collective bargaining’s goal is a contract. For the Steamship Authority to drag this process out for four years is unconscionable and unacceptable and you have a chance to rectify this mistreatment of the Steampship Authority workers.

Union negotiations should not be like running on a treadmill that has no off switch. Please help these workers reach the finish line and achieve the contract they deserve. I urge you to please report Senate Bill 1627 out of this committee favorably and expeditiously and help these workers attain the contract they joined a union to secure. Thank you.