PRESS RELEASE: MAY 4, 2009

 

BY THE ESSEX COUNTY CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS ASSOCIATION

 

The Division of Labor Relations Finds Probable Cause in Three Separate Complaints filed by the ECCOA That the Sheriff Violated Chapter 150E, the Public Employee Labor Relations Statute

 

            On April 30, 2009, as a result of charges filed by the ECCOA against the Essex County Sheriff’s Department beginning in October 2005, the Division of Labor Relations (formerly the State Labor Relations Commission), issued three Complaints of Prohibited Practices containing a combined total of thirteen separate counts of violations of the law against the Essex County Sheriff’s Department.  The hearings for these cases will take place sometime between October and December 2009.

 The substance of each of the complaints is summarized below:

 

1.    SUP-05-5209:  One Count Complaint 

 

Short Summary:  The Sheriff violated the rights of the ECCOA and its officers by retaliating against them for operating the ECCOA electronic bulletin board, which is protected conduct under the law.

 

This case involves the union’s charge that the Sheriff engaged in a public relations campaign that denigrated and retaliated against the ECCOA and its officers for simply maintaining the ECCOA web site and electronic bulletin board.  The Commission gave credence to the following allegations, based upon actual video of Sheriff Cousins during on air interviews:

 

“During an interview on Channel 7, Sheriff Cousins stated that ECCOA officials were ‘exposed for what they are, angry men who are racists.”  When an interviewer on NECN asked Sheriff Cousins about problems wit the ECCOA, he replied that: The problems are that they don’t like directions from someone of color.”

 

Based upon these allegations, the Division concluded that:

 

 “[T]he ECCOA’s operation of the electronic bulletin board constitutes concerted, protected activity within the meaning of Section 2 of the Law.  By the statements [above], the Sheriffs department has interfered with, restrained and coerced the ECCOA’s officers and unit members in the exercise of their rights guaranteed under Section 2 of the Law in violations of Section 10(a)(1) of the Law.”

 

2.    SUP-070-5355:  Five Count Complaint

 

            Count One:  The thirty (30) day suspension of Jerry Enos, ECCOA President, was in retaliation for Enos’ past activities as union president and other protected conduct.

 

            Count Two:  The discharge of Jerry Enos was in retaliation for Enos’ protected activity as a union president.

 

            Count Three:  The discharge of K. Ricky Thompson was in retaliation for his protected conduct as the administrator of the ECCOA’s Internet site.

 

            Count Four:  The Sheriff’s Department violated the Law by refusing to recognize Enos and Thompson as the ECCOA’s duly elected president and treasurer.

 

            Count Five:  The Sheriff’s Department refused to bargain in good faith by denying the ECCOA’s request for information regarding the disciplinary and/or personnel records of unit and non-unit members.

 

 

3.    SUP-08-5380:  Seven Count Complaint

 

Count One:  The Sheriff’s Department failed and refused to bargain with the ECCOA for a new contract.

 

Count Two:  The Sheriff’s Department violated the Law by providing assistance to the rival union, NCEU, when Assistant Deputy Superintendent Giordano asked George Gikas, a bargaining unit member, to sign his name in support of the NCEU petition.

 

Count Three:  The Sheriff’s Department violated the Law by allowing Michael Nessinger of the NCEU to solicit employee signatures in support of the NCEU despite the existing no solicitation policy.

 

Count Four:  The Sheriff’s Department violated the Law by refusing to allow Enos and Thompson, after their discharges, to enter the property of the ESCD for union business, and thereby applied its no solicitation rule in a discriminatory fashion

 

Count Five:  Deputy Superintendent McCoy and Assistant Deputy Superintendent Robito violated the Law by interfering with Derek Lewis’s right to consult with the ECCOA for representation at a disciplinary hearing.

 

Count Six:  The Sheriff’s Department terminated Derek Lewis in retaliation for his protected conduct of consulting with the ECCOA for assistance in his disciplinary hearing.

 

Count Seven:  By the actions that form the basis for Counts Five and Six above, the Sheriff’s Department interfered with the existence and administration of the ECCOA in violation of the Law.