WLEA Local 1 Meals Update, March 2009

The meals issue is still pending. If it seems like forever that we have been fighting management on this issue, that’s because it has been. We attempted to negotiate a paid lunch period in the early 1990’s after having to take a 30 minute unpaid lunch every day for years as part of our shift. As you may recall from previous articles, management would not agree to give us a 30 minute paid meal break during our shift.

We took them to court while we were still Local 55. The case started in Federal Court in 1996, but that case was dismissed and refiled in state court in 1997. The Patrol’s management was confident on their position, and used many tactics to block the union’s success. Their first contention was that they had sovereign immunity. The Wisconsin Supreme Court denied that defense, and they were forced to face the issue at trial in Dane County Circuit Court.

In February, 2003, Judge John Albert (Dane County) issued a ruling against the State Patrol, finding that our meal period was indeed compensable. It is important to note that an independent third party determined that the employer was wrong.

On April 4, 2003, a recently appointed Superintendent Dave Collins issued a memo cancelling the option of an unpaid meal break during the shift. That grievance was filed, but before it got to arbitration, we voted to change our bargaining representative, and you know the history that went with that. The State took the position that the previous contract and all pending grievances were nullified once we left our former union, so we were forced to fight through the Wisconsin Employment Relation’s Commission (WERC) to get a ruling that the contract and pending grievances were valid, and that the State was once again wrong.

We took the meals case to arbitration, and the state mischaracterized their position. They claimed that the only way they could give us a meal break was if it were beyond our 8 hour shift, forcing them to pay us ½ hour overtime each day.

The arbitrator ruled that the contract did not compel the state to give us overtime on our normal schedule, and so she ruled against the union. That decision was issued on March 24, 2008. Binding arbitrations are usually non-reversible, hence the name “binding,” but we appealed this one because we believed the arbitrator exceeded her authority to remedy the situation, because she essentially created new contractual language with her decision.

On December 23, 2008, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi issued her decision on the arbitrator’s decision. It split the two issues in the arbitration. The judge agreed that the contract did not guarantee an 8.5 hour shift each day with guaranteed overtime, but she also ruled that the arbitrator erred when she essentially eliminated the meal reimbursement provision. That case, if you want to look it up on CCAP, is Dane County 08CV2109.

On February 27, 2009, the state filed an appeal on the decision. The case is currently in the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, case number COA #2009AP548, and if we prevail there, it will undoubtedly go to the Wisconsin Supreme Court (again).

When Superintendent Collins arrived in 2003, he inherited this issue, and we pretty much gave him a pass that he was following poor advice of his management team. Six years later, he doesn’t get that absolution. It has been within his power to correct this decision and he has refused to do so.

 We will continue to see this matter through, and hopefully justice will finally prevail.