Unions push to extend just-cause protections and promotion arbitration to MWRA employees

Union leaders representing MWRA and other utility workers testified before the Joint Committee on Public Service urging passage of companion House and Senate bills that would amend the MWRA enabling legislation to grant MWRA employees the same workplace protections that other state employees enjoy.

Jim Durkin, legislative director for AFSCME Council 93, described the proposed change as restoring a "just cause" standard for discipline at the MWRA so that management would have to warn employees, investigate and present evidence, apply rules consistently, and allow grievance and arbitration up to and including binding arbitration. He argued absence of just-cause protections leads to arbitrary discipline and cited past instances of uneven punishments.

Steve Pugliese (NAGE), Patrick Russell (MOSES) and other witnesses supported the change and urged the committee to report the bills favorably; they also asked that promotional and assignment arbitration limitations in the MWRA enabling act be removed so MWRA employees can challenge selection decisions similar to other state workers. Senator Collins and other legislators also testified in support of legislation intended to prevent terminations without just cause and to expand promotional opportunities.

Supporters framed the bills as parity-and-fairness reforms: they would not necessarily require frequent arbitration, but they would give MWRA workers the right to raise disputes through an established grievance process. No final committee action on these bills was recorded in the hearing transcript.

Next steps: the committee may request fiscal or legal analyses of amendments to the MWRA enabling statute before reporting the bills out of committee.