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michael
Senior Member
195 Posts |
 Posted - 10/03/2008 : 06:30:31 AM
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IT IS MY UNDERSTANDING THAT FLAG MEN FOR THE STATE HAVE MADE THEIR WAY TO EVERETT AS THE MWRA WILL BE WORKING HERE.
TIME WILL TELL, THE AREA IS OFF MAIN STREET
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Tails
Administrator
2682 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2008 : 09:27:38 AM
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| I'm not understanding..... Do we have to use flag men, and who's decision is that? Isn't that taking away from the police? Why is the MWRA working off Main St? |
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michael
Senior Member
195 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2008 : 10:52:56 AM
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| the answer is YES the governor signed the bill for flag men to be used on all state projects MWRA is state, the helicopters are up in the air, police are protesting, also a chemical spill on school and corey st STAY AWAY. |
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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2008 : 11:31:08 AM
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| I was wondering why the helicopters were circling. Leo McKinnon has something on the agenda about the flag men issue. |
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Tails
Administrator
2682 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2008 : 11:49:38 AM
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It's probably me, but,......I'm not understanding how you can amend an ordinance to read.... "That the Mayor shall have authority to establish rules and regulations in regards to details assigned to roadway projects"
Since the Governor already signed the bill, can we do this? |
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Tails
Administrator
2682 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2008 : 3:04:48 PM
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There was a spill. Is it leaking that bad that it's close to the mystic river?
Crews cleaning up oil spill in Everett
EVERETT, Mass. -- Dozens of gallons of oil spilled on a street in Everett Friday morning.
SKY7 was over the scene on School Street.
The Coast Guard said they are trying to stop between 50 - 100 gallons of oil from seeping into the Mystic River. |
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michael
Senior Member
195 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2008 : 4:00:43 PM
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Angry police union members chased away MWRA workers in Everett and Revere today citing safety concerns in the first test of the state’s new rules on road details.
In Everett, union members and reporters and cameramen surrounded a two-person crew from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority that showed up to perform routine maintenance inside a manhole at 11:30 a.m.
After several conversations with union members, the MWRA crew left without doing any work. Officers left a bumper sticker on the manhole that read: Police Details Save Lives Governor Appointed Flagmen Won’t.
Under new rules, a $42-an-hour Everett detail police officer is no longer required on jobs like the one scheduled this morning in Everett.
Union members followed the MWRA crew to their next job on Fenno Street in Revere, where a city police captain refused to allow the crew to do their work.
“Your plan is faulty and we’re not going to allow you to work,” Revere Capt. James Guido told MWRA Chief Operating Officer Mike Hornbrook, who accompanied another worker today.
The two confrontations are believed to be the first attempts to comply with state regulations on road projects that took effect today.
The regulations allow civilian flaggers to be used at state construction sites, with certain restrictions, replacing detail police officers. The work in Everett in the past would have required a police detail, but under the new regulations neither an officer nor flagger is required because the street is relatively quiet, said Ria Convery, MWRA spokeswoman. The agency submitted a construction safety zone plan to the police department for the work, which is a requirement under the new regulations.
Convery said it’s unclear if a similar-type job in Winchester will be completed today.
“There are clearly some labor relations issues that need to be resolved and the street is not the place to do it,” she said.
Hornbrook, the MWRA’s second-in-command, accompanied another worker today because the agency anticipated push back from unions, she said.
The Everett police unions, who held signs and lined Tremont Street this morning waiting for the MWRA crew, claimed the new rules violate their union contract and the principle of good faith negotiations.
“The governor has overstepped his bounds,” said Tim Benedetto, secretary and treasurer of the Everett police patrolmen’s union. “We feel this violates our collective bargaining agreement.”
Benedetto said Everett police officers working construction and utility details make $42 an hour.
Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria also supported the officers’ efforts saying that members negotiated contracts with higher detail rates in exchange for general salary concessions.
“They are here based on a contract they negotiated over the years,” he said.
Gov. Deval Patrick championed the new rules as a major cost-savings to Massachusetts, the only state in the country that requires police details at nearly all construction and utility work sites. Patrick estimated the plan could save $5 million a year.
The regulations instruct the state to use civilian flaggers or electronic signs on roads with a 45 mph speed limit or less. The regulations would also affect roads with higher speed limits, but relatively low vehicle trip counts.
Klark Jessen, spokesman for the Executive Office of Transportation, said civilian flaggers will be used sometime very soon at work sites. The state is training flaggers and determining how much they will be paid, he said. In the meantime, Mass Highway workers already trained as flaggers will be stationed at work sites as part of their daily duties.
“The bottom line is Mass Highway is working on it and there will be flaggers at locations around the state very soon. An exact day has yet to be determined,” he said.
Article URL: You must be logged in to see this link.
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tetris
Moderator
2040 Posts |
Posted - 10/05/2008 : 12:44:34 AM
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So that we can all be on the same page about this issue, I've located a bunch of links that we can use to educate ourselves on the topic.
The first link is to the act passed by the legislature in April that includes the detail provision. The authorizing language for detail portion of the act is found in Section 10 of that Chapter.
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The next link is to a draft version of the detail regulation. It is interesting to note that in that version of the regulation, in section 7.01(2)(b), there is actually language where work authorized by state agencies would have had to respect collective bargaining agreements. I'm not sure if this was a drafting error or something else. The language found in Section 10 of the authorizing act seems to indicate that the intent of the act was that collective bargaining agreements only needed to be honored when the municipality authorizes the work.
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The next link is to the version of the regulation that went into effect on October 3rd. Comparing this version to the prior one, it's easy to see that the provision which required work authorized by the state agencies to respect collective bargaining agreements has been conspicuously eliminated.
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This next link is to a NECN video that features the mayor. He basically says that there is nothing that the city can do about the detail issue in regards to State authorized projects.
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From what I've read, I have to agree with the mayor. It's interesting. The state has written a law that states that municipalities have to respect collective bargaining agreements that they have negotiated with the police unions but the state does not. On the other hand, the police contract is with the municipality and not with the state. I wonder how how long it will take before this issue shows up in a court of law.
There are two measure that are currently floating around city government that are trying to address this situation. But as the mayor stated in the video, there's really nothing that the city can do about it.
The first was an amendment to Chapter 17, Section 17-55 of the city's Revised Ordinances offered by Alderman Marcus which would have all police details in the city performed by current or retired Everett Police Officers as authorized in the home rule petition found in the following link. This amendment was referred to the Rules and Ordinance committee. I believe that there was a meeting of that committee last week so the committee's recommendation for the amendment will likely appear on the agenda at the next Board of Alderman's meeting. The council can go ahead and decide how to proceed with this issue, but it will have no effect on the detail issue since state law supersedes local law.
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Finally, there's Councilman McKinnon's item on next Monday's agenda. The city could chose to go ahead with this piece but, again, it will have no effect on work authorized by state agencies. |
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FLAG MEN COME TO EVERETT
