On Tuesday, February 14, the department heads in Tiverton’s municipal government went before the Rhode Island State Labor Relations Board (RISLRB) as a step toward unionizing.  No judgment has been announced, but the issue bears close watching.  A December 22 article by Tom Killin Dalglish in the Sakonnet Times (not online) lays out the legal questions:

Town Administrator James Goncalo said two definitions contained in the labor board’s rules will primarily determine whether the employees should be part of the bargaining unit.

Labor Board Rules 1.01.18 and 1.01.25, he said, respectively deal with whether any or all of the seven employees are “managerial” or “supervisory.” …

Also likely to be considered, said [RISLRB Administrator Robyn Hohenemser-Golden], are factors identified in a third provision of the RILRB rules (1.01.8), which defines “community of interest,” something bargaining unit employees must share.

Under most people’s understanding of “management,” the seven positions in the mix are clearly managerial in nature:  department of public works director, wastewater collections superintendent, building and zoning official, tax collector, tax assessor, town planner, and senior center director.  The department heads run their organizations, supervise employees, and are deeply involved in the development of budgets.  To the extent that they are not considered managers, town residents might justifiably wonder why so many of them are needed — at least at their current level of authority — when their jobs appear to lend themselves to integration.

Quite apart from the upward pressure that unionization will inevitably put on budgets, organized workforces tend to be more resistant to change and more difficult to modify.  Pawtucket recently found itself unable to fire a police officer who had been convicted of indecent exposure because of a technical error while following rigid disciplinary rules; New York City‘s public school system has become famous for accumulating fully salaried teachers whom the schools cannot allow to teach, but whom they can fire only after an expensive and tedious process.

In the case of municipal department heads, at issue are positions that require high-level decision making and involve the authority to shape the functioning, even the culture, of the town.  That is, they are positions that elected officials and voters ought to have maximum flexibility to change.