DIXFIELD — Teamsters Union Local 340 of South Portland has filed a prohibitive practice complaint with the Maine Labor Board, claiming the town showed discrimination and bad-faith bargaining during negotiations with the Public Works Department.
Business agent Lorne Smith said Monday morning that the Teamsters has also filed a human rights suit against the town of Dixfield for discrimination on behalf of Darlene Brann, the former administrative assistant of the Public Works Department and union steward with Teamsters Local 340.
In a letter to the editor, published in the Dec. 25 edition of the Rumford Falls Times, Smith said the Teamsters, who have been negotiating with the Dixfield on behalf of the Public Works Department since April, offered a health care plan for Public Works employees that “would save the town of Dixfield over $36,000 over a three-year agreement.
“What we asked for in return was a 2 percent increase for the five employees working there over those three years,” Smith said Monday. “Darlene was among those five employees. The cost of the increase would cost the town less than $12,000, and when you add in the savings from the health care plan, the town would be looking at a $24,000 savings over those three years.”
However, Smith said that negotiations stalled after Town Manager Linda Pagels-Wentworth said she wanted Brann removed from her position as union steward.
“We held our first negotiating sessions in April, and their board came out very adamant about Darlene being removed from the union,” Smith said. “We continued to refuse that request. Darlene was eventually moved from her office in the Public Works garage to the Town Office, where she was working under the town manager.”
Smith said the town should have filed a unit clarification petition and gone through the Maine board to let them know that Brann shouldn’t serve in the union and as administrative assistant at the same time.
Smith said that while he and the Teamsters were attempting to negotiate on behalf of the Public Works Department, the town “entered into negotiations with the Mexico Water District behind closed doors to subcontract Darlene’s duties to the Water District.”
During the Dec. 9 selectmen meeting, the board voted 3-2 to change the billing portion of Water and Sewer to the Mexico Water District by relocating the administrative services from Dixfield to the Mexico department, which subsequently terminated Brann’s employment with Dixfield.
“When I first heard that the town was negotiating with the Mexico Water District, it was news to me,” Smith said. “I sent an email on Nov. 20, asking the town manager about it. I didn’t receive a response until Dec. 10, when the union and Darlene received a letter explaining that the town had subcontracted with the Mexico Water District and that Darlene would be placed on administrative leave until Dec. 31, upon which her employment would be terminated.
“That’s where our grievance stems from,” Smith said. “The town of Dixfield has spent over $29,000 in legal fees trying to get rid of Darlene’s position. If you take one instance over those nine months, it may not seem like a lot of basis for a complaint, but it’s very clear a pattern has formed showing the town manager wanted Darlene gone.”
Smith said that the pending human rights lawsuit stemmed from an incident in October involving Brann and the Board of Selectmen.
“Chairman Mac Gill and Selectman Scott Belskis went through an interview process with every employee in the town during the town manager’s probationary period,” Smith said. “Every employee except Darlene. The idea that a taxpayer in town can’t talk to the chairman of the board about the town manager is ridiculous.”
Wentworth said in an email that the “town of Dixfield is negotiating with the Teamsters in good faith on a successor Public Works union contract” and that the “Maine law that governs collective bargaining prohibits public discussions of negotiating positions at this time.
“The town intends to follow the law, and therefore has no comment at this time,” Wentworth said.
Wentworth said Monday morning that the reason for subcontracting Brann’s position to the Mexico Water District was because it “was an opportunity for regionalization and made fiscal sense.”
Chairman Gill said he had no comment, since Maine law prohibited him from speaking on the matter.
Selectmen Scott Belskis, Hart Daley, Dana Whittemore and Bob Withrow could not be reached for comment Monday.
Smith said the Maine Board of Labor will meet Jan. 10 to discuss the prohibitive practice complaint.
mdaigle@sunjournal.com
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