The Law Enforcement Supervisors Union (LESU) and V.I. government both filed Friday for impasse mediation with the Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) after the union rejected an offer made by the government for a new contract.
LESU represents sergeants, lieutenants, captains and supervisors in the V.I. Police Department and at the Bureau of Corrections’ Youth Rehabilitation Center. The union’s Local No. 118 on St. Thomas has about 50 members, while Local No. 119 on St. Croix has roughly 60 members.
Sgt. Joseph Gumbs, president of LESU Local 118, said Monday the union’s members have been working without pay increases since their contract expired in 2005. Negotiations for a new contract began in 2008 but were broken off after the government said it had no money for salary increases, according to Gumbs.
In November, the union staged protests on St. Croix and St. Thomas, at which time the government scheduled renewed negotiations for Jan. 13-15. Both sides reached agreement on most of the contract language, but negotiations broke down Jan. 14 when it came time to negotiate salaries, Gumbs said. The union was then told to come back the following Friday, Jan. 22nd, to resume talks.
"We submitted our proposals, and the government came back and said they have no money, maybe until the next fiscal year," he said. "So at that time we declared an impasse."
Lack of money was not a sufficient justification, Gumbs said, because the government has given pay increases to rank-and-file officers in the Police Benevolent Association and to the police commissioner, police chiefs and deputy chiefs.
Because of those other pay raises, if a patrol officer has 15 years of experience and a sergeant has 15 years of experience, the lower-ranked officer makes more money than their supervisor, he said.
Valdemar Hill, chief negotiator for the Office of Collective Bargaining, confirmed most of Gumbs’ account. But the offer the union rejected, Hill said, would have corrected the pay disparity between officers and supervisors.
Hill and Gumbs both said they hope for a successful resolution to the impasse. "We just want to resolve this amicably with the government," Gumbs said. "We don’t want to have to protest and take our focus off our primary function of service to the community. But we still have to look out for members and for the welfare of our families who depend on us to support them."
Hill said the government was bargaining in good faith, but within severe financial constraints.
"What we did was bargain in good faith, based on the financial restrictions of the government," Hill said.
Wednesday at 1 p.m. there will be an initial conference in the PERB offices on the second floor of the Nisky Center on St. Thomas to see if a settlement is possible, PERB Director Zandra Petersen said Monday. The meeting is open to the public. If that does not work, PERB will either begin mediation itself or, if that looks unlikely to succeed, send the conflict straight to binding arbitration.
"But we will do everything we can to resolve this quickly, with little cost," Petersen said.
