The Connecticut State Labor Relations Board (CSLRB) ordered the union representing East Windsor Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) workers back to the bargaining table to talk pension benefits with the town after the union unilaterally walked away from negotiations.
Officials from the town of East Windsor were seeking to lower the pension multiplier in the contract between the WPCA and UE Local 222, Connecticut Independent Labor Union, Local #23 from 2 percent, where it has been since 2010, back down to 1.75 percent, according to the CSLRB decision.
Not only was the town seeking to lower the pension multiplier moving forward but also sought to void the previous three contracts since 2010 and require the WPCA to “make retroactive payments to the Town for all the unlawfully attained pension benefits,” along with the Town’s legal fees and costs for having to bring this action.
The contract between the WPCA and the union has traditionally, since 1993, been left to the WPCA to negotiate, including the 2018 contract that expired in June of 2023. A new contract was signed between the union and the WPCA in March of 2023, according to the labor board decision.
However, also in March of 2023, just eleven days after the WPCA and union signed their contract, East Windsor First Selectman Jason Bowsza informed the WPCA that the town intended to renegotiate union pension terms. In June, after the collective bargaining agreement was filed with the Town Clerk’s office, town attorney Joshua Hawks-Ladd issued a letter stating the pension benefits in the contract were void “because they ignored Bowsza’s March 23rd demand to negotiate.”
From March 2024 to May of 2024, the Town, WPCA and the union exchanged emails with proposals and counterproposals until the union suddenly ceased negotiating. The Town filed a complaint with the CSLRB alleging the union violated the Municipal Employee Relations Act by walking away and asking the board to direct the union to bargain pension benefits with the town, and to nullify the last three collective bargaining agreements.
According to the board’s decision, however, the WPCA retained the ability to bargain the union contracts until the town revoked its authority in March of 2023; the WPCA was granted authority to negotiate contracts under a decision by the East Windsor Pension Board in 2001, and therefore all the contracts and pension provisions within them “was a legitimate exercise of that continuing authority.”
“The Pension Board did not indicate that the grant of authority expired on a date certain. Nor did it indicate that the WPCA needed to seek renewed bargaining authority prior to engaging in future negotiations or reserve ‘final approval’ over terms of participation in the Plan as it did with the Department of Public Works and the Housing Authority,” the decision states.
The Board also determined that adjustment of the pension multiplier was not a matter that needed come before the Board of Selectmen because it did not constitute a “request for funds,” and because the WPCA paid the annual pension contribution from its own funds.
Nevertheless, the board determined the Town retains the right to negotiate pension provisions in the most recent contract and moving forward, and while the union can resort to binding arbitration if an agreement is not reached, “they cannot merely walk away.”
“Accordingly, we find that the Union violated the duty to bargain in good faith when it unilaterally ceased negotiating in May 2024,” the CSLRB wrote. “The Town’s request for a make whole remedy, including retroactive payments and legal fees is denied.”
The CSLRB issued a declaratory ruling that “The East Windsor WPCA has no authority to negotiate changes in the Pension Plan without the Town’s consent,” and ordered the union to cease and desist from refusing to bargain with the Town.
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