Local officials unite against contract bill

PROVIDENCE — On the day before an anticipated House vote on a previously vetoed bill to extend expired municipal and teacher contracts indefinitely, Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena served warning: "If this passes, we may as well shut off the lights, give the unions the key and give them the checkbook."

"This is a lifetime contract bill. That's right. A lifetime contract bill,"  said Polisena, one of the 10  mayors and town administrators standing, side by side, in the State House library on Monday in a unified display of opposition to this latest in a run of union-backed bills making headway this year in the state's Democrat-dominated legislature. 

"If this is allowed to become law, this will clearly put every city and town at a clear disadvantage when it comes to negotiations. This will absolutely — and I will say it again — absolutely raise property taxes." 

And "when I have to raise taxes," Polisena vowed, he will put the name of every local legislator who voted for the bill "in clear view in the tax collectors' office so the taxpayers [whom] they represent know who caused [the] tax increase."

One by one, the mayors of Providence, Cranston and North Providence took their turns, blasting the "damaging and crushing" legislation, as they termed it, co-sponsored by Rep. Camille Vella-Wilkinson, D-Warwick, that is headed to a House vote when lawmakers return Tuesday from a week-long break.

They said the unions would have no incentive to negotiate in tough times when concessions are needed. Several cited rising health-care costs. Lincoln's town administrator, T. Joseph Almond, cited pensions and other post-employment benefits awarded decades ago.

"When the state passed its own pension reform it basically told the mayors that have local pensions, go back and solve your own problems. We can't help you with that," Almond said.

Now, "if you look ahead, if you go to the general treasurer's local pension report, all you have to do is read it and all you will see is the dark storm waiting for everybody 5 or 6 years from now.... [That] problem is there. It is huge. It is massive and it is not just in Providence," he said. "If we can no longer begin to address those in collective bargaining." Pause. "If I was in the union, I'd say, 'I am not going to talk with you about that'."

"Contract continuation is not a Democrat or Republican issue. This bill will affect every single city and town across the state," said Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, a Republican.

The legislation would allow teacher and municipal employee contracts to remain in effect indefinitely after they have expired. 

At its core, the legislation says of expired contracts: “All terms and conditions of the collective bargaining agreement shall remain in effect ... until such time as a successor agreement has been reached between the parties.”

“We’ve had several situations over the past several years where school committees and superintendents unilaterally made decisions that negatively impacted teachers, and we don’t feel that is fair or right," Frank Flynn, president of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers & Health Professionals, told lawmakers in February.

On Monday, National Education Association of Rhode Island Executive Director Robert Walsh said the mayors and town managers who protested were not "being forthright with our citizens. When they claim that unions would refuse to bargain if this law is passed, they ignore not only the long-term impact of a wage and benefit freeze on workers living under an old contract, but [the] fact that it is already illegal under Rhode Island law to refuse to bargain in good faith with the employer.

"They also ignore our own history," he said, "From the late 1960’s ... until a decade ago in a specific case in East Providence, contracts continuing until an agreement was reached was exactly the practice.... While it is understandable that municipal leaders would prefer unilateral authority to ignore bargaining entirely, fortunately The Rhode Island Labor Relations Act specifically states that 'it is in the public interest that equality of bargaining power be established and maintained.' The continuing contract legislation does exactly that by restoring balance to the process."

Second-term Gov. Gina Raimondo vetoed an earlier version in 2017. But it is no longer clear that the governor — who snagged endorsements from NEARI and other labor groups for her 2018 reelection bid — would veto this year’s version, even though it, too, would indefinitely lock in wages and benefits.

Also taking part in Monday's protest against the bill, as it stands: Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza, North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi, Barrington Town Manager James Cunha, Jamestown Town Administrator Andrew Nota, Charlestown Administrator Mark Stankiewicz, North Smithfield Town Administrator Gary Ezovski, Burrillville Town Manager Michael Wood and South Kingstown Town Manager Robert Zarnetske.