Police Commission Seeks To Resolve Labor/Management Conflict

By Andrew Gorosko

In a move to improve apparently strained relations between the police labor union and police management during a time of low police morale, members of the union’s executive panel have met with Police Commission members to discuss points of contention between the union and management.

The police department has 47 sworn officers, of whom 45 people are covered under the current three-year labor contract between the Newtown Police Union, Local #3153, Council #15, AFSCME, AFL-CIO, and the town. That contract expires on June 30, 2011.

The two officers who are not covered by that contract are the police chief and the police captain. Both of those officers are considered police management, and thus are covered by separate nonunion work agreements with the town.

Among the four main goals which Police Commission Chairman Duane Giannini has proposed for Police Chief Michael Kehoe for the coming year is improving labor/management relations at the police department.

Achieving such a goal could involve the police management receiving training in labor/management relations, developing a survey to understand labor union issues, conducting that survey, evaluating that survey’s results, and developing a plan of action based on the survey’s results, according to the chairman.

Other goals proposed by the chairman for the chief include: pursuing better facilities for the police department; fully implementing the department’s new computerized system that handles computer-aided dispatching and police records management; and pursuing higher levels of accreditation for the police department.

Also, Mr Giannini has proposed that the Police Commission work for improved labor/management relations at the police department.

“The cornerstone of effective community service and employee retention is a sound foundation of employee relations. The [Police Commission] recognizes that there exists an opportunity for improving relations between the command structure of the [police department] and the men and women who professionally serve this town,” according to a goals proposal from Mr Giannini. Toward that goal, the commission would develop a strategy to improve labor/management relations.

Near the end of an April 6 Police Commission session, three members of the police union’s executive board met with the five-member commission to discuss the union’s issues with police management. Police Chief Michael Kehoe and Captain Joe Rios also attended.

Police Union

Police Patrol Officer Andrew Stinson is the labor union president. Also attending the session were union board members Patrol Officer Scott Ruszczyk and Patrol Sergeant Domenic Costello.

Officer Stinson thanked the commission for having a face-to-face meeting with the union to discuss pending issues, adding that he hopes such a session will lead to more meetings between the union and the commission.

Mr Stinson said that until now, the union has not formally interacted with the commission, adding that such interaction is positive.

Mr Costello, the union treasurer, added that the union’s membership supports such meetings between the union and the commission.

Mr Stinson said that the union filed 33 labor grievances in 2007, with many fewer grievances being filed in ensuing years.

The prime point of conflict between labor and management apparently involves differing interpretations of police officers’ use of sick leave.

On the advice of the union’s attorney not to file additional grievances over the sick leave issue, the number of grievances filed after 2007 dropped dramatically, according to Mr Stinson.

However, the union’s new attorney has advised that such grievances should again be filed, so the number of such complaints probably will increase again, according to the union president.

Mr Giannini said it is encouraging that many grievances filed by labor against management have been settled at the local level.

Mr Giannini pointed out that commission members James Viadero and Keith Jacobs will serve as the commission’s liaisons to the police union.

Mr Stinson supported plans to conduct a survey of police union members to gauge their sentiments on various issues. He urged that such a survey be conducted in a way that ensures anonymity to respondents. A lack of anonymity would compromise honest responses being made to such a poll, he said.

Chief Kehoe said that some mechanism must be in place to ensure that the responses to such a survey represent individual officers’ actual responses.

Mr Giannini suggested that some computerized survey be used to safeguard the process. He added that such a survey should definitely be anonymous and should be filled out by all 45 police officers covered by the union contract.

Such a poll should be conducted annually, according to Police Commission member Bruce Walczak.

Conducting a new survey of police officers may provide some insight into the overall police force’s thinking when considering that the police department has many relatively new officers, according to Mr Stinson.

Low Morale

Mr Stinson told commission members that police morale is the lowest that it has been in the past decade. Mr Stinson has been a member of the police department since July 2001.

Since 2001, 15 police officers have resigned and three officers have taken early retirements, Mr Stinson noted, remarking on a high police turnover rate.

Mr Stinson told commission members that when “exit interviews” are conducted by police management on why officers are leaving the organization, none of the departing officers being interviewed wants to “burn their bridges.”

According to Police Commission records, Officer Stinson told commission members that there are several factors contributing to low morale among police. They include: the large number of people who have left the organization; a lack of accountability in the organization; bullying tactics by police management; and other issues.

Mr Stinson noted that there are some positive aspects of the police department. These include: an improved employee evaluation policy; high quality training and evenly distributed training; high quality police equipment; the existence of police specialty units; and the management’s efforts to maintain police staffing levels.

Mr Stinson said he hopes that union representatives and commission members will meet on a regular basis to discuss issues.

Additional Comment

Asked this week to comment on the labor-management situation, Mr Stinson said in a statement, “At this time the union is going to refrain from making a public statement. We are working closely with the Police Commission in an attempt to resolve some of the issues.”

Asked to comment about police union representatives speaking directly to Police Commission members regarding labor-management issues, Chief Kehoe said this week that the town and the police department are always willing to improve relations with the workforce, to discuss matters of mutual importance, and to improve service to the community.

“I’m not going to deny that there are [labor/management] issues,” he said.

“We don’t bully anybody. We apply reasonable, rational business rules,” Chief Kehoe said.

A meeting such as the one that occurred on April 6 can be a “healthy” experience, he said. The police chief said he wants the communication process to produce positive results.

“I’m encouraged by this process. [There are] certain things we can resolve by this process at this level. [There are] certain things we can’t resolve at this level,” he said.

“If we open up a few more lines of communication, that’s great,” he said.

“I think we opened up a line of communication. Now we have to define the issues,” Chief Kehoe said.