Both sides will meet with a mediator in about a month.
By: Jill Matthews
MONTGOMERY Nearly 11 months after beginning negotiations, the township and its employees’ union have yet to reach an agreement on a contract.
The township and union began contract negotiations in October 2003, two months before their three-year contract expired.
The union and the township have jointly requested and met with a state mediator from the Public Employees Relations Committee, said Brett Kimmelman, president of the 88-member Montgomery collective bargaining unit. Both parties plan to meet with a mediator again in a month or so, he said.
"The mediator somewhat streamlined the process and really lays the numbers out on the table to see if we can come to some conclusion," said Mr. Kimmelman.
Although Mr. Kimmelman said he does not have an offer to present to members of his union, he is trying to be optimistic that an agreement will be reached soon. But even if things go well at the next meeting, the contract won’t be signed until the end of the year at the earliest because both the Township Committee and the union members have to approve it, he said.
Now, he said, the biggest problem is scheduling meetings that work for the township, the union and the mediator.
Mayor Louise Wilson said she could not predict when the negotiations would be resolved, but added that the Township Committee would "love for it to happen sooner rather than later." The committee discussed the negotiations in executive session at its last meeting and has given its negotiating team its "marching orders," she added.
Given the budget constraints the township will face in the next year because of the state-approved property-tax relief program that limits municipal spending, the township has to be particularly mindful of what it budgets, she said.
"We are really constrained knowing the cap issue we are facing with the state budget," said Mayor Wilson. "It is not going to be an easy year next year or the year after."
She said the township wants to be fair but has to take into account the constraints it is under and hopes the union recognizes that as well.
"With costs related to insurance and benefits easily going up in the double digits … there is no wiggle room," said Mayor Wilson. "It is going to be a real struggle to get under that cap."
In May, more than half of the union members appeared before the Township Committee to extend an "olive branch" in hopes of reaching an agreement. At the meeting, a union representative said the employees could not afford the low wage increases or the substantial changes to their medical and prescription benefits that the township was proposing.
In response, Mayor Wilson said the committee instructed its negotiating team to contact the union again in an attempt to find common ground and settle on a contract quickly and amicably.
Around the same time, the Township Committee voted down an employee-incentive plan first proposed in September by Committeeman Mark Caliguire when the union raised last-minute concerns about not being properly notified of the program.
The program is a performance-based awards plan for township employees designed to promote efficiency and prevent overspending on township services.
At the time, the union said it did not oppose the plan itself but should have been made aware of the proposed program because under the Public Employee Relations Act, any proposed monetary increase must be negotiated with the majority union. Union members said the township never mentioned the program to them.
The committee planned to look at the program again after receiving a written recommendation from its attorney.