New Fundraiser Just for Employee Pay?

It's the Latest Idea from Management in Community Services
Dispute; Union Leaders Are Skeptical

By MANDY LOCKE

Management waved an olive branch across the negotiation table at
Martha's Vineyard Community Services Friday - offering to
add a new fundraiser to the agency's social calendar for the
purposes of boosting the earnings of agency staff.

Yesterday, the union informally rejected what they termed as
"a bake sale."

Management's offer to host a separate fundraiser comes less
than three weeks before the Possible Dreams auction - a
high-rolling summer fundraiser that has become a pawn in unresolved
contract negotiations between agency officials and 35 unionized
employees.

"Compensation [for staff] could always be improved.
Non-profits such as ours that are dependent on state funds and private
fundraising struggle to have a well-balanced budget and pay our people
well," said community services board president Ursula Ferro in a
telephone conversation yesterday morning.

The move comes less than a week after management rejected
singer/songwriter Carly Simon's proposal that the nonprofit
accept a portion of her donation for Possible Dreams as specifically
earmarked for staff wage increases, not wanting to change the
auction's mission of covering unfunded care in midstream.

Employees of Island Counseling Center, one of two programs
represented by Service Employees Union International, Hospital Workers
Union local 767, have indicated they will use the auction to levy wage
grievances, promising to "raise the volume," said ICC
counselor Rob Doyle last week.

Richard Perras, the agency's labor attorney, said the proposal
for a new fundraiser could head off such conflict. "Clearly, we
would expect that if they accept this proposal, they would not [raise
grievances at the auction]. It's implicit. We would have an
agreement in place," he said.

The union has until July 29 to accept the offer. The union must also
agree to a two-year contract complete with management's original
wage package of a 2.5 per cent cost of living increase, along with a
commitment to reopen wage talks in the fall of 2004.

The union's idea of fair compensation differs by a margin of
over $100,000 - calling for 15 per cent increases.

While management's fundraising offer will formally be
discussed during a negotiation session today, the union officials and
employees said yesterday they were unimpressed.

"If this is supposed to be in response to a comprehensive wage
proposal, it seems pretty inadequate. At first glance, it does not
appear to be a serious proposal," said Jerry Fishbein, director of
local 767.

In late June, the union revised their wage proposal, scaling back
salary increase demands from 30 percent, along with calling for the
agency to "publicly announce that donors and participants in the
2003 Possible Dreams Auction may designate some or all of their donation
toward increasing wages for all agency employees." The proposal
includes the establishment of a joint union and management committee to
review and distribute earmarked donations.

In its new proposal, management said it would evenly distribute the
proceeds of any fundraising to all of the agency's 143 employees
- not simply the 35 ICC and Visiting Nurse Service employees in
the union's bargaining unit.

Officials acknowledge this one-time event - the specifics of
which were not described in the offer - would not fully address
staff salary grievances.

"We're not suggesting that this fundraiser be the only
vehicle to address salaries. But we need to settle a labor dispute and
get the stability of a contract. This has to be done
incrementally," said Mr. Perras.

But employees don't understand why they can't get a
piece of the Possible Dreams pie - a tried and true mechanism for
raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars to complete the
agency's $5 million operating budget.

"We have a fundraiser that's happening in three weeks.
Why not take a chunk of that, then have a later fundraiser to make up
what we don't get? Why do we, the staff, have to count on
something that's an unknown?" asked ICC employee Amy
Lilavois, noting she's relieved that management acknowledges that
additional staff compensation is needed.

Brewing labor tensions have seeped into the public arena
increasingly since April.

The union interprets management's latest move as an attempt to
quiet employee unrest less than a month before an auction that community
services' officials say they count on to set the course for what
services the agency may offer in the coming year.

"It's clear they made this counterproposal for [the
newspaper] instead of us. They're wanting to gain some credentials
in the public domain. It's not a commitment to help staff.
It's a commitment to do a bake sale," said Mr. Fishbein.

Ms. Ferro said she hopes that any staff involvement in the auction
won't interrupt the course of the Possible Dreams Auction.

"I certainly hope it won't. But I don't know how
one predicts these things. I think the good will of the community is
amazing. I think they realize how important the fundraiser is to the
agency," Ms. Ferro said.