Publication Date: Friday, December 02, 2005
Union voted down
Union voted down
(December 02, 2005) Managers, professionals say union dues not worth the benefits
by Bill D'Agostino
Surprised council members sounded as though they dodged a bullet after learning that managers and professionals in the City of Palo Alto decisively voted against joining a union Wednesday.
Council members had been concerned about the possibility of a citywide strike if the managers and professionals unionized, since nearly all of the city's employees would have then belonged to a union.
Councilman Jack Morton said the rejection was a "vote of confidence" for City Manager Frank Benest.
More than 60 percent of the employees choose not to unionize. With 157 of 184 casting ballots, 95 voted no and voted 62 yes. The group included managers in most city departments, as well as professionals such as engineers, a veterinarian and an architect. They voted in secret at the Lucie Stern Community Center.
Some managers wanted to unionize to defend themselves against the threat of reductions in employee benefits. Councilman-elect Larry Klein said during his recent campaign that he wanted to cut the number of managers in the city.
But dissenters said they voted no because they did not see the benefit for the union dues, which would have cost each employee 0.96 percent of his or her gross salary. They also like negotiating directly with the top city managers.
"We did not want to put in a union layer between us and them," said Risk Manager Karl Van Orsdol, who had argued against unionization during a forum on Tuesday.
Had the push been successful, the group -- which did not include top-tier managers like City Manager Frank Benest and other department heads -- would have been represented under the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Local 21. On its Web site, the chapter bills itself as "one of the fasting-growing local unions in the state."
Prior to the election, Vice Mayor Judy Kleinberg had expected the employees to unionize. She was pleased with the employees' choice because she worried the union would make contract negotiations more adversarial.
The City Council would have continued to negotiate justly with those employees, Kleinberg said. The vote against joining the union "does underscore my feeling that we have dealt pretty fairly with them," she said.
Union organizer Kathy Espinoza-Howard, who manages Cubberley Community Center and the city's Human Services Division, insisted that she wasn't disappointed with the outcome.
"I'm really happy that we had this choice," she said.
The vote sends a message to upper management that the group is not satisfied with the status quo, Espinoza-Howard said. "I know the 62 want something different."
Staff Writer Bill D'Agostino can be e-mailed at bdagostino@paweekly.com.
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