Standing up and being counted. It takes guts. It takes courage. It shows you are willing to be identified as opposing the current thinking by those in control. You recognize that there could be consequences. This isn’t the 1970’s with the Berlin Wall in place and East Berliners protesting.
This is 2014 right here in our backyard at Westminster City Hall. At the Nov. 10 City Council meeting, petitions signed by 255 Westminster City employees were submitted to the City Council urging the council to call an election for 2015 to allow Westminster voters to decide collective bargaining with the fire fighters. These employees and likely more who chose not to sign the petitions do not support council going ahead on their own to decide the city government’s fate on establishing at least the first employee union to negotiate on a host of issues.
City employees input counts
I admire every one of these employees. As I reviewed the set of petitions, I recognized quite a few of the names listed. Quite a few of them are long-term employees of at least 20 years of employment who have invested their careers here. I respect their opinion and I certainly hope that the City Council does too and understands the importance of this communique.
In part, the city employees are indicating that by recognizing a union to engage in collective bargaining would have a negative impact on the working environment. The existing camaraderie would be impacted. They also know that if one union is recognized that others would likely follow such as Police Department personnel. Rather than four people deciding this precedent setting decision, the employees are saying let the Westminster citizens/taxpayers weigh in and decide this meaty issue.
Fear of repercussions
The petition signers who stepped up to express their stand did so while being fearful that repercussions could perhaps take place. They have so stated this concern publicly. I do not know if they are fearful of City Council members or their supervisors or top management of the city. I did note that no department heads or staff in the City Manager’s Office chose to sign the petitions along with very few division heads.
Poor job of communications
At the Dec. 1 City Council Study Session, the topic of the collective bargaining issue is scheduled to be discussed (this column is written prior to Dec. 1). I plan to be in attendance to hear firsthand just what each city councillor is saying and where they stand. Since this topic has not been mentioned by the city administration or reported in newspaper coverage, it is frustrating that the issue is not better known within the community. Even a couple of councillors acknowledged to me that the city has done a poor job of communicating this situation. Those councillors who support adopting an ordinance to set the negotiating parameters keep telling me that the public is not opposed to allowing collective bargaining. However, I contend that the public is not informed about what is going on. How can they be concerned about something they do not know about? Perhaps the City Council should hold a public forum on the subject at hand and give anyone who wishes to speak the opportunity to state their position.