THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 20, 1994 TAG: 9411190344
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 142 lines
Leaders of the blue-collar labor union at Norfolk Naval Shipyard negotiated a new contract for the yard's laborers with the Navy and implemented it two months ago without letting the members vote.
Some hourly workers in the yard say the union didn't tell them about the new agreement until last week, but the union says it announced the new contract in its weekly newsletter when it became effective.
The dispute over the contract is the latest sign of long-running discontent with the union and its leadership among many workers at the shipyard.
What the leadership of the Tidewater Virginia Federal Employees Metal Trades Council did was legal under its bylaws and federal labor laws. However, some shipyard workers are calling the contract, and how it was negotiated and implemented, a sellout to management.
``The way they're running the union now. . . I guess it's a farce,'' said one worker, who was recently denied a job-related trip under the new travel rules. ``I guess they're working with management.''
The contract concerns work rules in the yard and not compensation. It changes how workers can be scheduled, safety rules, disciplinary requirements and travel privileges, among other work rules.
The workers the council represents are the backbone of the shipyard. Its members weld, wire, sandblast, paint and do most of the yard's hands-on labor. It represents nearly 4,200 hourly employees at the yard, though its actual membership is lower than that. The yard's total payroll stands at 7,300 - down from 8,665 at the beginning of the year and 11,190 at the end of 1992.
The Navy has been slashing payroll at its shipyards around the nation as its budget has been pared and more vessels have been decommissioned.
Worker unhappiness with the council culminated last year in an election fight with a breakaway union of disaffected workers. The breakaway union won a first vote but didn't have the margin needed to oust the council. In a second vote held last December, the council narrowly won.
In another sign of worker discontent, a group of black workers named the union in a suit filed in October alleging racism in how jobs are assigned at the shipyard.
The council's leadership had a year to negotiate a new contract with the yard or the union that challenged it before, the Union of American Federal Employees. Another union could also wage a challenge.
``We knew that the Metal Traitors would start negotiating a new contract after last year's election because that was the only way that they could stop another challenge by a rival union this December,'' said Glenn ``Big Foot'' Stephens, president of the breakaway union.
``However, we never dreamed that they would negotiate a secret contract with management and implement it without letting the few members that they have left know about it or vote to ratify it,'' Stephens said.
There may be a sweet irony in this bitter medicine for shipyard workers.
The shipyard is being considered for closure in the next round of base closings in 1995. One issue is its efficiency. If the shipyard is closed, all the workers lose out.
Management at the yard may need a contract like this to make the yard more viable. Shipyard officials were unavailable for comment on the contract. They don't comment on base-closing issues.
When it's a question of survival and innovation with labor is needed, the traditional collective bargaining process just doesn't work, said a labor professor at a North Carolina university, who didn't want to be named because he wasn't familiar with the details of the situation.
The council opted not to put the new contract to a ratification vote because the membership in the past has shown little interest in voting on work-rule contracts, said Ronald E. Ault, the council's deputy administrator.
While the council's bylaws would have required approval of the contract by union members, the council was placed under deputyship in February by the Metal Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, its Washington-based parent, Ault said.
``The international unions decided the local wasn't able to manage itself,'' Ault said.``Local bylaws were suspended, so it went under the international bylaws, which allows the deputies to approve the contract.''
The new contract was approved by the three deputies appointed by the AFL-CIO to run the council and the president of the Metal Trades Department, Ault said.
``Failing to go to some kind of ratification vote is very rare,'' said the labor professor from North Carolina. ``It is just so counter to whole idea of a union as a democracy.''
Carl Colonna, an economics professor at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, called the failure to get a vote bizarre at best and unethical at worst. ``In my experience, agreements with management are tentative until approved by the membership,'' he said.
But local labor law lawyers say the union members can do little to challenge the new contract once it has been signed.
There are no federal laws that mandate that a labor contract must be ratified by the union membership before it goes into effect. How a contract is approved depends only on the union's internal bylaws.
``A union isn't any different from any other kind of entity like a corporation or a partnership,'' said Carol E. Summers, a labor lawyer in Virginia Beach. ``The entity itself has the authority to regulate its own internal affairs.''
Under the regulations of the National Labor Relations Board, which oversees unions at private companies, workers are barred from trying to oust a union through an election until a ``reasonable'' time passes after the signing of a collective bargaining agreement.
The NLRB has defined reasonable as at least three years. Exceptions have been granted, but only in extreme cases.
As a union at a federal facility, however, the council falls under the Federal Labor Relations Authority, which has similar rules.
If it's decided that the Metal Trades leadership violated their own bylaws by signing the contract without a ratification vote, the union members might be able to successfully call for an election.
Besides not being able to vote on their own work rules, some workers say they weren't informed about the contract, which was signed Sept. 2 and became effective 20 days later, until last week.
Several workers, who didn't want to be named for fear of reprisals by the union, said they hadn't heard anything except rumors about the contract until last week. Union representatives began handing out copies of the contract in the yard last week, they said.
But Ault said the shipyard published details of the new contract in its newsletter Stern Tubes in late September or early October.
``They may have,'' said one worker. ``We very rarely get those newsletters.''
The language in the new contract departs significantly from the old work rules in several places. Some workers called the changes a giveaway to the union.
One of the biggest changes is in the hours of work. The previous contract called for standard 40-hour workweeks Monday through Friday in three shifts. The new contract gives the shipyard greater flexibility to schedule shifts corresponding to the workload in the yard.
The new contract also changes safety regulations and disciplinary rules in the yard. Previously, work could be temporarily stopped if there was a ``reasonable objection'' about the safety of the job. Now there must be an imminent risk of death or serious bodily harm to stop work.
Before, management had to show ``just cause'' to discipline a worker. Now it can take disciplinary action if it ``promotes the efficiency of the service.''
The new contract also changes how hourly employees can be assigned to travel for ship repair work outside the yard. Now workers can be kept off a trip because of their job assignments.
Union officials were unavailable to discuss the the details of the contract.
``After reviewing the sections on travel, hours of work, safety and others that were changed, it is apparent that management wrote the contract and the Metal Traitors merely signed it!'' Stephens said.
- MEMO: Staff writer Kerry DeRochi contributed to this report.
KEYWORDS: DISCRIMINATION LAWSUITS SHIPYARDS by CNB