Manchester City Unions Organize to Fight Job Cuts

Story: Michael Roche is president of the United Steelworkers local that represents Manchester Water Works employees. He is also spokesperson for the all the city's unions. [m1]
He’s working to revive a group called the Coalition of Public Employees, also known as COPE.
Roche: It was formed in 1985. There were six unions, originally. I'm the only one left -- I'm one of the cofounders. And now they'll hopefully all participate. There will be 17. So, 24 years later, we added 11 unions to the mix.
Roche is hoping the mix includes the range from teachers to Teamsters.
It's no coincidence Roche is trying to reorganize COPE now.
City officials are warning of dire budget cuts, including the possibility of 200 layoffs.
The mayor has even formed a special committee just to deal with union contracts.
McGilvray: He's talking a week furlough, elminating next year's 3 percent raise, and increased healthcare costs.
That's Scott McGilvray, head of the Manchester Education Association.
City officials have indicated that teachers would be exempt from mandatory furloughs.
Still, McGilvray said some of the proposals he’s seen could cause a veteran high-school teacher's salary to drop $4,000 to $5,000 a year.
Roche, of United Steelworkers, says during contract negotiations a couple of years ago most of the unions agreed to gradual raises.
ROCHE: Obviously, we would have liked to have gotten more up front because many of us or most of us are maxed out. So in the first year -- two years ago -- we only got a one percent raise; the taxes that year actually went down 1.4 percent. So we helped keep taxes real low, which is why there's going to be a big discussion going forward whether we should be balancing the tax rate on the backs of unionized employees.
But because of the agreement, the raises this upcoming year are supposed to be 3%.
On the school side, layoffs loom.
The school board presented a $152 million budget this week -- up from $148 million.
Even with that increase, however, the district says it may have to lay off close to 100 workers.
And the likelihood of getting the requested increase appears to be remote.
The city's police department, meanwhile, has been asked to prepare a budget with level funding
Assistant Police Chief Gary Simmons says it's too early to tell if that would mean layoffs.
With several vacancies, one possibility could be to hold off on new recruits
SIMMONS: We don't want to hire somebody if we'll have to lay them off.
Alderman Mike Lopez, too, says there are too many uncertainties to make firm predictions.
He points to the federal stimulus money in the wings and possible savings from early retirement packages.
LOPEZ: I think everything is on the table. When you say a week's furlough that's a lot of money taken away from somebody. Personally, my own opinion, I think that's probably a last resort that you want to do.
Meanwhile, Mayor Frank Guinta, has based his political career on opposing tax increases.
He recently noted with pride that Kiplinger.com has ranked Manchester as the number two city in the nation with the lowest tax burden.
Later this week, the city's 17 unioins are expected to announce their take on the budget -- and their ideas for keeping Manchester's workers on the job.
For NHPR News in Manchester, I'm Ellen Grimm