Steplight addresses four-year contract dispute between employees and city of East Orange

EAST ORANGE, NJ — East Orange has been going through a lengthy contract dispute, stretching well into the fourth year, for some employees who are working with no contract. But, according to city administrator Solomon Steplight, there is no truth to an accusation that the city is funneling funds from federal COVID-19 relief for the employees; nor is there any truth to employees living well below the poverty level.

Communications Workers of America Local 1077 is the sole city employee union yet to reach a contract agreement; all other bargaining units have made an agreement. CWA Local 1077 could not be reached for comment by press time.

“There are 20 to 30 different items that we were going back and forth about in order to have a contract settled. We had to agree on all of the items, and it got to a point where we had to file and say that we’re not making any progress. That happened a few months ago,” Steplight said on Feb. 11. “We have settled with all of our bargaining groups except for one, and we have filed a motion saying that we are at an impasse and waiting for feedback from an arbitrator to be installed. So that is what is going on.

“We’ve been going back and forth with this bargaining unit for a number of years. This bargaining unit represents 300 or 400 members,” he continued. “I don’t have the exact number today, but the numbers always change.”

According to the mayor, the city has been working in good faith toward a contract agreement.

“The city’s position is that all of our employees are absolutely critical to our success, and we take their agreements through their labor unions with the utmost importance and, up until this point, we have settled all of the labor union agreements except for one, and we are working diligently to get that one settled as well,” Mayor Ted Green said on Feb. 15.

According to Steplight, he is pressuring the town’s attorneys to get the contract settled as quickly and fairly as possible.

“I’m desperately trying to get this rectified as quickly as possible,” Steplight said. “Candidly speaking, I think one of the big challenges is that there were a lot of things that lingered from a prior administration that didn’t get resolved, and so, negotiating this particular contract, we spent a lot of time trying to resolve historical things. So I’m not pointing the finger at the past, but that did impact the timeline. When you are negotiating over 30 or more different items, including things that date back to 2016 prior to your term, the employees are caught in the middle.”

Steplight denied the accusation that the city is funneling funds out of federal COVID-19 relief for the employees.

“During the pandemic, a lot of municipalities were faced with a financial crisis and they were forced to either furlough or lay off staff,” Steplight said. “Fortunately, we did not have to lay off people and we did not have to do furloughs and we were able to, with all of our bargain units — and we have evidence of this — pay out hazard pay, beginning, I believe, in April or May of 2020.

“So, from the COVID relief fund from the federal government, people received their daily rate plus half time if they were called into the office, so to speak. If they were called in to work, they received hazard pay, and this particular bargaining unit felt like they deserved more hazard pay than they actually received,” he continued. “So there were some concerns about the amount of hazard pay they received, as opposed to acknowledging they’ve actually received it. That may be what they’re referring to, but I’m not 100-percent sure.”

Green countered the union’s accusation that employees are being paid below the poverty line.

“In terms of the comments about people working below the poverty line, my understanding is that the poverty line is somewhere in the $20,000 a year range, and we do not have any full-time employees with benefits working below that annual salary,” Green said. “Our lowest annual salary for full-time here is $31,000 or $30,999.”

Steplight concurred.

“Just because you don’t get everything you want doesn’t mean that something criminal is going on. It may just mean you don’t understand what’s happening. I can tell you that $38,000 a year is more than $15 an hour, and everyone talks about $15 an hour being a living wage. So as it pertains to us currently having employees living well below the poverty level — that is not true,” Steplight said.

Steplight says he understands the employees’ frustrations, which is why he is trying to get this issue resolved.