PROVIDENCE – A R.I. Superior Court justice today ruled in favor of Rhode Island Council 94 members and moved the union’s unfair labor practices complaint against the implementation of Gov. Donald L. Carcieri’s executive order concerning workers in the executive branch to the R.I. Labor Relations Board for adjudication.
The ruling also blocked Carcieri from applying the order to employees under the judicial and legislative branches.
R.I. Council 94 of the Association of Federal, State, County & Municipal Employees had filed a complaint against Carcieri for refusing to negotiate after the union overwhelmingly rejected a four-year contract proposal in July. (READ MORE) The state’s offer called for workers to pay an increased share of their insurance premiums, saving the state millions in an effort to balance a strained budget.
When negotiations stalled, Carcieri promulgated an executive order, issued July 31, that would have instituted those changes without a new contract. (READ MORE) That order was stayed Aug. 1, pending a hearing before the R.I. Superior Court.
In her 19-page decision, Superior Court Associate Justice Patricia A. Hurst cited the need to retain separation of powers.
Hurst also stated that Carcieri “has the inherent authority to take action within his own department to cut costs and raise revenue.” Those powers, however, are “merely ancillary to [Carcieri’s] limited constitutional powers,” the judge wrote, adding that “the distinction is subtle but important.”
In ruling against the executive order, Hurst sent the union’s unfair labor practices claims back to the R.I. Labor Relations Board for a decision.
And Hurst didn’t stop short of pointing a finger at Carcieri for “allowing a deficit-burdened budget to become law while relying upon future revenues … fraught with constitutional and other legal difficulties that, unfortunately, may cost the state more in time and litigation than it stood to gain.”
Carcieri, she wrote, “all but blamed the budget deficit on the state’s unions, accusing them of violating the Constitution for failing to go gently into the night of a pay reduction …”
Carcieri released a statement following the decision in which he declared victory, noting that Hurst did not prohibit the governor from implementing his health care plan in the executive branch, which represents approximately 98 percent of Council 94 members.
I look “forward to advancing our case before the state Labor Relations Board,” said Carcieri.
J. Michael Downey, president of Council 94, issued a statement after the ruling stating that Hurst did not go far enough in preventing the governor from implementing his executive order but instead allowing the Labor Relations Board to rule on whether Carcieri violated labor and contract law and what relief from those potential violations should be.
The union promised to file an appeal to stay the ruling.
Rhode Island Council 94 of the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME), AFL-CIO, is the state’s largest public-employee union, with about 4,100 members or a third of active state employees. Additional information – including the full text of last week’s court ruling – is available from the union at www.RICouncil94.org. News and information from the R.I. Governor’s Office are available at www.governor.ri.gov.
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The R.I. Labor Relations Board, part of the R.I. Department of Labor and Training, oversees collective bargaining elections and resolves charges of unfair labor practices. Additional information is available at www.dlt.ri.gov/lrb.
