CWA 1180 - News

BCB case expands union rights for city workers
June 2003

A Board of Collective Bargaining (BCB) decision this spring reversed previous case law and held that city workers have the right to union representation at any agency interview that might lead to disciplinary action.

The case involved a Deputy Warden at the Department of Corrections whose request for a union representative was denied at a meeting in which she was asked to sign a disciplinary statement. The BCB ruled that this denial was a violation of her rights under the city's Collective Bargaining Law. The decision, which came in response to an improper practice charge filed by the Deputy Warden's union, reverses the board's own previous rulings on the matter. The BCB noted that its new position brings it in line with a similar ruling recently adopted by the state's Public Employee Relations Board (PERB).

With the new BCB ruling, unionized city workers now have the same rights that private-sector workers have under federal labor law. Known as Weingarten rights for the Supreme Court case that established them, they entitle an employee who is called into a meeting she or he believes may involved disciplinary action to either have a union representative present or to end the meeting without penalty.

For 1180 member and other city workers, this means: You have the right to a union representative, like your shop steward, in any meeting that may lead to disciplinary action. If management refuses to allow union representation, you have the right to end the meeting.

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