Workplace violence and union-busting unacceptable

Throughout her tenure, Mayor Toni Harp has called for compassion and kind-heartedness in many forms, from aiding those who are struggling economically to reaffirming our city’s standing as a safe haven for immigrants.

Sadly, those qualities have been missing in her administration’s treatment of city employees. The most recent example took place March 30, when, during a pre-termination hearing for one of our union members, Chief Administrative Officer Michael Carter verbally threatened with violence Harold Brooks, the vice president of our AFSCME Local 3144 union, which represents 400 dedicated public servants.

As reported in the Register and elsewhere, Mayor Harp is standing by Carter, whose responsibilities, ironically enough, include enforcement of the city’s zero-tolerance policy for workplace violence, which includes “acts and/or threats of violence, including intimidation, by and to employees ….”

When asked how about the incident, the mayor told WNHH radio there will be “ramifications” for Carter’s actions, but not termination. “He’s been a great asset to the city of New Haven. I would not support that,” she added. The Mayor backed up her words that day by issuing a polite letter of warning to Carter.

By virtue of his position and responsibilities, Carter should be held to a higher standard of conduct. A letter of warning is an insufficient response.

It’s further disappointing that Mayor Harp went out of her way to defend her manager as an “asset” to New Haven, without a word of concern for the victims in this incident: Local 3144 Chief Steward Alan Bush, the subject of the pre-termination hearing, who was taken out by ambulance and of course Brooks, who works in the Finance Office.

Brooks has served New Haven taxpayers for more than 27 years. (Carter has been in New Haven less than five years.) He is a lifelong resident of New Haven who has raised his family here, sent his children to New Haven public schools, and is a licensed minister at Beulah Heights Church. He epitomizes public service.

Looking the other way when your manager abuses an employee is unacceptable under any circumstances. When it’s part and parcel of a pattern of intimidation, disrespect and even violation of the law, then you have a fullblown labor and human relations problem. And that’s what we have with the Harp administration.

The most noteworthy — and costly — example is the mayor’s effort to destroy our union through a petition the city filed with the state Board of Labor Relations two years ago. The mayor’s representatives say this action is nothing more than a “clarification” of who can be a member of our local union, but make no mistake, the intent is to weaken a bargaining unit that has been a strong voice for generations of New Haven public workers.

This crusade to diminish our union has come at great cost to the detriment of our membership and all New Haven taxpayers. The city has refused to tell us the legal costs, but we estimate it conservatively to be several hundred thousand dollars. This is an unjustified and wasteful use of resources.

Our union also has been forced to file multiple grievances and bad faith labor complaints over the administration’s refusal to honor the collective bargaining agreement and the laws that govern municipal labor relations. In a case that made it through formal hearing process, the state Board of Labor Relations sided with AFSCME and ordered the city to cease-and-desist from acts of intimidation and harassment directed toward me as bargaining unit president.

The Harp administration’s campaign to weaken our voice as an employee representative has resulted in layoffs, program eliminations and disciplinary actions directed against members of Local 3144 who want to do their jobs free of political pressure and with the public’s best interests in mind.

Back in 1932, a group of Wisconsin state employees banded together to defend their rights as civil servants, pushing back against a corrupt spoils system that would reward friends of politicians with important public-service jobs that demanded nonpartisan professionalism. That was the beginning of the formation of our AFSCME union.

Our union is committed to that spirit of professionalism in public service. We urge the mayor and her administrators to step back and realize there’s a better way forward than literally attacking Local 3144 members for trying to exercise their democratic rights at the workplace. New Haven deserves better.