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March 19, 2009: OSPRI press release: UNION MAKES COMMITTEE'S CASE AT SLRB |
In one of the charges discussed at today's hearing, ULP 5946, the Union accuses the School Committee of unfair labor practice for refusing to establish ground rules for negotiation. But the evidence is that the school committee offered compromise grounds rules or to negotiate with no ground rules at all. But the Union refused to change its demands. How this amounts to the School Committee committing unfair labor practice remains unclear even following the Union's opening statement.
Indeed, although the claims against the Union for refusal to bargain were dismissed, it appeared that the Union's attorney thought the Union's conduct might be suspect and so took pains to make clear that the board had previously ruled that it is not an unfair labor practice to refuse to negotiate in public.
"It appears that, in defending its own actions, the Union has made the School Committee's case. If it is not an unfair labor practice to refuse to negotiate in public, it cannot be an unfair labor practice to refuse to negotiate in secret," said William Felkner, president of the Ocean State Policy Research Institute that runs the LRBwatch.org site.
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March 19, 2009: Providence Journal article: Labor Board to hear teachers' case |
Larisa said an independent review of the board’s cases supported his contention. The Ocean State Policy Research Institute — a conservative policy group whose executive director, William Felk-ner, is a Hopkinton Town Council member — recently researched the board’s 19 cases since 2006.
Seven “contained substantive rulings that impact management-labor interactions” and every one of them was in favor of labor unions. The total scorecard is 15 wins for labor and 4 wins for management, the institute said.
“Couldn’t management just be wrong all those times?” Felkner said in a news release. “When looking carefully at the basis for decisions, what we found was that when past practices support labor’s position they are controlling, but when they support management’s position they fall short. Every case is different but the weight that the board places on various theories and precedent are like a finger on the scale, and there can be no doubt it is tipping towards labor.”
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March 18, 2009, OSPRI Press Release: 33 SECOND "INVESTGATIONS" BELIE SLRB CLAIM OF OPEN MEETING EXCEPTION
"Why does the Rhode Island State Labor Relations Board (SLRB) decide behind closed doors whether or not a case will be given a hearing?" asked Ocean State Policy Research Institute (OSPRI) President Bill Felkner today. "This seems like the most public of its possible actions and yet it is the most secretive."
And how much time is put into those decisions? New research on the past year of SLRB meetings shows that these closed sessions afforded as little as 33 seconds for investigating each matter raised. Over the last year, on average, the board afforded a much more generous minute and 25 seconds per case.
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March 4, 2009, OSPRI Press Release:THE SCORE IS IN - THE STATE LABOR RELATIONS BOARD IS BIASED TOWARDS LABOR... WANT TO LEARN MORE? GO TO OSPRI'S NEW WEBSITE!
"After the East Providence School Committee cut teacher pay, they quickly found themselves facing a hearing at the State Labor Relations Board. Now everyone is asking if it will be fair?" said William Felkner, president of the Ocean State Policy Research Institute. "Well, we looked at the data and I'm sorry to say that no, the Board exhibits a bias and favors labor the vast majority of the time."
From 2006 to the present, the SLRB has heard 19 cases, seven of which we have determined to contain substantive rulings that impact management-labor interactions. Every one of those major cases was ruled in favor of labor. The total scorecard for the SLRB, including cases with minimal impact, is 15 wins for Labor and four wins for management.
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February 16, 2009, OSPRI Press Release: IS THE STATE LABOR RELATIONS BOARD BIASED? We research, you decide
President of the Ocean State Policy Research Institute today cautioned that the lack of transparency in State Labor Relations Board operations is leading fair-minded citizens to question whether the board is biased.
“The State Labor Relations Board reported it has dismissed unfair labor practice charges filed by the East Providence School Committee against the teacher's union alleging failure to bargain in good faith (ULP-5933),” said William Felkner, president of OSPRI, “but we learned this after hearing the news that they did issue a complaint based on the same circumstances filed as charges by the union against the school committee (ULP-5946).”
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February 13, 2009, Providence Journal: State Labor Relations Board to hear teacher's complaint
EAST PROVIDENCE — The state Labor Relations Board will hold a formal hearing on whether the School Committee broke the law when it unilaterally cut teachers’ pay 5 percent and began payroll deductions equivalent to 20 percent of the cost of health-insurance premiums.
The labor board issued a complaint against the committee after the East Providence Education Association charged that the School Department broke the law when it instituted the cuts on Jan. 16. The labor board voted to issue the complaint during a closed meeting Tuesday, but did not make an announcement until yesterday morning after both sides had received written notice, said administrator Robyn Golden.
“East Providence teachers are happy that the labor board has filed a complaint,” said Valarie Lawson, president of the 500-member union. The board’s vote bolsters “what the East Providence teachers have been saying all along — that the School Committee hasn’t bargained in good faith and their actions have been unlawful.”
Daniel Kinder, a lawyer representing the School Department, said he wasn’t surprised by the board’s vote.
“Almost every charge a union brings gets a complaint and hearing,” he said.
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April 7, 2004, Providence Journal: CRhode Island's Labor Board Fight Governor's Call for Resignation
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- As the state Labor Relations Board yesterday affirmed its 4-to-3 decision that home-based daycare providers are state employees entitled to unionize, the chairman and a number of board members decried Governor Carcieri's call for their resignations.
"I think it's an abuse of power," said board chairman Walter J. Lanni of the letters delivered Monday to him and three labor-affiliated board members: AFL-CIO President Frank J. Montanaro, Joseph V. Mulvey and John Capobianco.
"This board, by nature of the statute, is autonomous," said Lanni, a former Cranston fire chief, who joined in the decision. "I don't believe the governor or anyone else has the right to ask for a resignation just based on a vote that he doesn't agree with."
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April 5, 2004, Governor Carcieri Press Release:CARCIERI CALLS FOR FOUR MEMBERS OF STATE LABOR BOARD TO RESIGN State Files Motion to Request that Union Members Recuse Themselves From Voting At Tomorrow's Board Meeting
Governor Donald L. Carcieri today called for the resignations of four members of the State Labor Relations Board. The Governor said that all four members had failed to carry out their duties in a recent 4-3 decision to allow independent child care workers to unionize and become state employees.
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April 3, 2004, Providence Journal Editorial: Friends in high places
It never stops. Rhode Island is facing a big state budget deficit, its communities are tumbling into economic trouble, due to giveaways to special interests, and now another group has stepped forward to drain the taxpayers.
Last month, by a 4-to-3 vote, the state Labor Relations Board ruled to let home-based child-care providers unionize and potentially negotiate with the state for pay and benefits.
Rhode Island's powerful public-employee-union bosses pushed this through. Voting for it were: Frank Montanaro, president of the state AFL-CIO and the Rhode Island State Association of Firefighters, and incoming chairman of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island; John Capobianco, a member of the state AFL-CIO's executive board; Joseph Mulvey, an AFL-CIO lobbyist; and Walter Lanni, chairman of the Labor Relations Board and a former chief of the Cranston Fire Department.
Continue reading HERE.
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