By Brian Fraga
The Las Cruces Sun-News
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — For almost two years, the Las Cruces Professional Firefighters Association has been waiting for the city’s Labor Management Relations Board to hear its complaint that the Las Cruces Fire Department unilaterally implemented an agility test for firefighters without consulting the union.
Since October 2010, when the complaint was first filed, disagreements over appointing the labor board’s third neutral member, as well as delays in nominating and approving the union’s representative, has kept the firefighters’ case in limbo.
“We just want to get it heard. We’re kind of frustrated with the whole process,” said Las Cruces Firefighter Mike Landavazo, the union president.
Retired local attorney Anthony Avallone, who served as the city labor board’s union representative from 2010-11, has brought the situation to the attention of the Public Employee Labor Relations Board in Albuquerque, which governs relations between unions and public employers in New Mexico.
After his term expired last fall, Avallone said the Las Cruces Professional Firefighters Association and the Service Workers International Union Local 9424 renominated him to represent them on the Las Cruces Labor Management Relations Board, which adjudicates disputes between the city and unions.
Avallone said the firefighters union first nominated him in December 2011, but that several months passed without the city responding to his nomination.
Then, on July 5, the Las Cruces Police Officers Association submitted their nominee, Robert Peterson, a former Las Cruces police officer. On Aug. 6, Mayor Ken Miyagishima and the City Council appointed Peterson, now a security court officer, to the city labor board.
Avallone cried foul. He claims that he had tried to inquire on his nomination status, but was instead given the runaround by city officials who claimed ignorance.
Avallone also said he requested records last summer from the City Clerk, but was told that there were no minutes of any meetings or correspondence sent or received by the labor board.
“My experience does not bode well for those in the city who want to be of help,” Avallone wrote in a February memorandum to Robert Garza, the city manager.
However, Garza said the city tried, for almost a year, to help the unions properly nominate their representative to the labor board, but that the unions did not follow the proper formal procedures.
“They never did the process the way it was supposed to be, so things stayed in a holding pattern,” Garza said.
It was not until July 17, Garza said, that he received a formal letter from the firefighters’ union and USW Local 9424 nominating Avallone.
However, Miyaghishima chose Peterson over Avallone, as the city ordinance that created the labor board allows the mayor to do. Garza said the appointment may have been influenced by Avallone’s refusals to agree on the labor board’s third member during his tenure.
Avallone “is just upset, quite frankly, that he didn’t get appointed,” Garza said.
Avallone said he and Richard Ferrary, the city’s previous representative on the labor board, twice agreed on a third member, only to find out that neither was a city resident. Avallone said he and Ferrary agreed on another appointment, but that their selection was nullified because their terms of office had just expired.
Peterson joins Matt Holt, the city’s current representative on the labor board. They are now in the process of choosing the board’s third member, Garza said.
The city has also responded to the Public Employer Labor Relations Board’s initial inquiries into Avallone’s complaints. The city argues that its labor board is the sole legal entity for mediating local labor disputes. The Public Employer Labor Relations Board is expected to hear Avallone’s case next month.
Meanwhile, the firefighters’ union waits to see if its case will be heard. In September 2010, the Las Cruces Fire Department instituted a new entrance agility test, to be used also as the department’s yearly certification test for firefighters.
The firefighters union wanted to negotiate over the agility test, but the department refused, arguing that the current collective bargaining agreement did not require the city to negotiate on that issue.
“We’re not arguing with the test itself. We think it’s a good test, but when you change something like that that’s been done for years, you have to collectively bargain,” said Landavazo, the fire union president.
“That’s all we’re saying,” he added.
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