Fact finder leaves Toledo, Teamsters unhappy

As is typical with city of Toledo-union negotiations, the talks slammed into a roadblock and the dispute went before a fact finder to hear the arguments and make a recommendation.

Sometimes, a fact finder leaves neither side too upset or too happy. Not this time.

"You would hope that a fact finder would try to find something down the middle," said Steve Herwat, deputy mayor of operations. "It is our opinion in the latest case, that the fact finder ruled more heavily in favor of the union than he did for us."

Teamsters Local 20 President Bill Lichtenwald said union members were angry council rejected the plan,

even though he wrote in an Aug. 18 letter to Council President Wilma Brown that many aspects of the report were disappointing.

"Our base wage rate is still the lowest of the six major cities in Ohio … and they have cut staff considerably," Mr. Lichtenwald said.

"We lost 70 people out of solid waste and that is about $3.8 million."

Eleven days ago, three members of City Council changed votes to form the 60 percent majority needed to reject the fact finder's recommendation on a new contract.

Mayor Mike Bell pushed council to reject the deal, saying the city couldn't afford it.

Fact finder Paul Gerhart, professor of marketing and policy at Case Western Reserve University, declined to discuss his recommendations. "I think the report speaks for itself," he said.

Mr. Gerhart was chosen by both sides to propose a settlement after Local 20 voted down the last deal. He had mediated the same dispute in 2007 and arbitrated a related issue for the city earlier this year.

Joseph Slater, a professor of law and values at the University of Toledo's law school, said it's not up to a fact finder to simply "split the baby."

"They are literally trying to find facts," Mr. Slater said. "The role of the fact finder is to find facts and make recommendations and he is directed by statute to do specific factors."

A fact finder also considers aspects such as "a city's ability to pay and what comparable employees are paid," he said.

During fact finding, the union argued that at $18.03 an hour, Toledo has the lowest base rate among Ohio cities for trash drivers.

But those Toledo workers rank closer to the top when the compensation is adjusted to include certain incentives and pension plan payments not given trash truck drivers in Akron, Bowling Green, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Dayton.

Pursuant to the 2007-09 contract, Toledo's trash drivers receive a "daily overtime" of $2.27 an hour plus an "unrestricted" trash pickup bonus of $1 an hour.

After the incentives and pension pickup of 8.5 percent for the Toledo workers and 10 percent for Columbus' trash drivers are added, Toledo's drivers are third behind Dayton and Columbus on the list researched and provided by the city.

In the new pact, the city sought to roll back incentives for the employees.

"The incentives go back historically to a different method of trash collection," Mr. Herwat said. "One of the bonuses, for example, is for unlimited pickup and now, with the new [trash collection] rules, we have limited bulk pickup."

According to the fact finder report, since at least the 1980s, the union and the city agreed that trash collectors and drivers could leave work when their route was done. So if a driver and a crew finished work in three hours, they could take the rest of the day off but would get a full day's pay.

"In turn, under this incentive system, drivers and collectors were not paid overtime," the report said. "Rather, their overtime was and is built into their pay so that they receive an extra $2.27 an hour as compensation for the lost overtime opportunities."

Before the switch to automated trucks when the city had unlimited pickup, collectors had to pick up items such as furniture and appliances, so the workers received a contractual bonus of $1 an hour. Also, drivers who worked a recycle route were paid an extra $1.65 an hour because those routes have only one collector and the driver has to get out of the truck and assist. Collectors on such routes are paid a 92-cent-an-hour premium to compensate for the fact that only one collector is assigned to the truck.

The city argued that those incentives became obsolete when it switched to a one-person automated collection system: The driver sits in a climate-controlled cab and uses a mechanical arm to lift and empty trash bins.

The city also said it wanted refuse workers to work full eight-hour days.

The fact-finder agreed with the city that "the ostensible reasons for all three incentives/bonuses are now gone," but he said the pay associated with overtime and unlimited-pickup bonuses should be rolled into each driver's base pay "in order to maintain wages comparable to other major Ohio cities."

Mr. Lichtenwald said many incentives - such as going home as soon as the work is complete - were suggested by the city years ago: "The city is the one who approached us … and said if we got done early enough to go home in order to get the trucks off the streets."

Many drivers and collectors have second jobs and would have to give them up, he said. "I understand to the voters that is not a big issue, but with our people that is a big issue," he said. "That is a complete lifestyle change."

The report advised a 2 percent raise effective the first pay period of July, 2011, or a 3 percent increase effective Jan. 1, 2012.

It also recommended a hike in the drivers' hourly rate from $18.03 to $21.08 and a lump-sum payment to compensate for the loss of the $3.27 an hour that was related to the city's old way of collecting trash.

The fact finder refused the city's request for the workers to pay their own full 10 percent share of the pension contribution.

He did not consider the alternative, adopted by other city unions, of having all new hires pay their entire 10 percent share. But city officials said they didn't ask for that.

The fact finder also did not agree to the city having the Teamsters brought under the city's health care plan. The city contends its own plan provides comparable service and would save about $600,000.

Mr. Herwat said the recommendation also was unacceptable because other unions set to begin contract talks next year expect raises as well.

"The Teamsters contract is the first negotiation of the Bell administration," he said. "We have six contracts that will expire midyear or the end of 2011, and what we do now will set the pace."

The proposal would have set a higher wage and benefit standard that six other unions, whose contracts expire in 2011, would have expected to get. An analysis distributed by the administration said if all unions got the raises sought by the Teamsters, it would add $3.42 million to the budget.

Contact Ignazio Messina at:

imessina@theblade.com

or 419-724-6171.