AFSCME Local 346, 35-hour clerical workers, turned out for the council’s final vote on union contracts. Marisa Colon, president, is seated at right. (Photo by Amy Porter)
WESTFIELD -Two union leaders spoke during public participation at the City Council meeting Nov. 21 in advance of the final reading and vote on their contracts, most of which were signed and ratified in June, and which have been languishing in the council for months.
Marisa Colon, who works in the City Clerk’s office and is president of AFSCME, Local 346, the 35-hour clerical employees, spoke first. She called the employees in her union “the face of Westfield to much of the public and often the only interaction residents will have with our city government.”
Colon said the union members are often on the receiving end of the frustration, anger and dissatisfaction that residents have with city policies, most of which they had no say in crafting.
“When new tax rates are set, our women in our collector’s office carry out the task of collecting those payments or demands from residents who often respond with abusive language and hostile dispositions,” Colon said.
“When transfer stickers increased five times from the previous year, the women in the licensing department who sell those stickers seldom make a transaction without hearing a vulgar comment… And to the overworked and overstressed women in the water and public works department, I don’t think I need to go into the details of the daily abuse they go through,” she added.
Colon said over the past 20 years, Westfield has seen a steady decline in clerical staff, with many departments, including Health, Park and Recreation, Purchasing, and Building, as well as the Senior Center all having only one clerical staffer.
“All of us are asked to do more and more with less and less, causing employee morale to be at its very lowest,” Colon said.
Colon addressed comments made by councilors during recent debates in the City Council over the negotiated contracts.
“As Councilor Dan Allie pointed out during the Tuesday night special City Council meeting, in the last 10 years the state has never restored local aid and it is the burden of the cities to make up for those shortfalls. Councilor Babinski stated that services will suffer and could possibly be eliminated in order to save the residents and local business from incurring future tax increases. However, the fact of the matter is that certain services have already been eliminated and/or delayed,” Colon said.
To Councilor Flaherty’s assertion that it is the council’s responsibility to assess the contracts, Colon said, “Those contracts have been reviewed… We, as well as the other unions have all bargained in good faith with the city for a modest 1% increase in wages which has already been budgeted for this fiscal year.”
Colon said that she is grateful that the majority of councilors see their hard work and support the raises.
“As Councilor Harris said, we are real people who live here, raise families here, shop here and who pay taxes here. You have a fiscal responsibility to both the residents and employees of Westfield. Please stop separating the two because more often than not, we are one and the same and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. My hope is that the future mayor and new city councilors will make a concerted effort to actively support the city employees and recognize our hard work and contributions that make Westfield a great community.”
Assistant Assessor Ashlie Felix, president of the Westfield Professional Municipal Employees Association, addresses the council. (Photo by Amy Porter)
Assistant Assessor Ashlie Felix, president of the Westfield Professional Municipal Employee Association, also spoke strongly about her union membership, and asked the council to vote for the ratified contracts.
“When the WPMEA came to the table to negotiate this year’s contract we were conscious of the budget, we work with it daily, and took a different approach. Our goal was to have things in place to retain and recruit good employees and create work life balance. After a lot of back and forth with the administration, an agreement was made and ratified back in June,” Felix said.
Felix then went on to make a distinction between the positions and the people.
“These positions are what make the city run day to day. These positions find and bring in state and federal funds, bring in new growth to offset the budget, make sure our children safely cross the roads to school, make sure our roads are safe enough to drive on after a storm, provide daily services for our elderly, veterans and more,” she said.
“But these people behind me are what make the city run effectively. They create programs to provide discounts to veterans shopping locally, they remember citizens who come into their office once a year to complete forms and applications and ask how things have been, and genuinely want to hear the answer. They make sure that kindergartener is zipped up tight for the last leg of their walk on a brisk day,” she added.
Felix also listed all of the ways that the employees volunteer their time in the community on committees and celebrations, and contribute to holiday drives and food pantry collections. “They don’t do these things to get raises or praise, they do these things because they believe in Westfield and want to contribute to it being a great place to live and work,” she said.
Felix referred to comments on the council floor that she said had suggested that employees, positions and even entire departments can and should be replaced. “But why would you want to replace the hard-working dedicated employees you already have? If you treat employees like they make a difference, they will,” she concluded.
