COLLECTIVE BARGAINING REPORT
Following in big footsteps
Is it advisable to accept a job offer without
knowing what the job entails? In my case, the
answer was a clear and resounding YES! My ra-
tionale was because George O’Brien, the man
who created and held the position of NJ State
PBA Labor Relations Consultant for nearly 30
years, told me unequivocally that I would love
MICHAEL it. But first, I would need to speak to President
FREEMAN Pat Colligan and Executive Vice President
Marc Kovar for their approval of his recom-
mendation. While I was a bit nervous about
my first job interview in 24 years, they increased my anxiety
by telling me that I should come in and shadow George for
a few weeks before deciding if I wanted to take the job. In
short, they didn’t know all that was required because George
handled it all without much fanfare. They knew he was busy,
but an actual job description was never available because
only one person could describe it, and he had never needed
to.
I realized the challenge of providing a job description as I
tried to explain it to my youngest son, who is a very bright,
unflappable, 16-year-old high school senior. First, I told
him I was still employed as a detective with the Summit Po-
lice Department but that my daily assignment would be in
Woodbridge at the State PBA office. I tried to keep it simple
by saying that what I’ve been doing for more than 20 years
for the members of Summit PBA Local 55, and more than a
dozen years for the Locals in the Union County Conference,
is what I would continue to do for the rest of the Locals in the
State PBA, along with some other stuff. As he stared blankly
waiting for an actual answer, I gave him the highlights of my
training period with George.
My training was hands-on from the beginning. George
gave me his seat, keyboard, a contract and access to the
massive database of Excel workbooks he had compiled over
three decades. Since he (and Marc) taught me how to extrap-
olate all the data from a labor agreement, he assumed that
I would have little problem transferring that data into the
appropriate spreadsheet. Consequently, he opened a book
and began some light reading as I did the work that will ul-
timately be given to any Local in the process of negotiating
an agreement. This information is critical to satisfying one
of nine factors considered by arbitrators known as the 16g
criteria: “Comparison of the wages, salaries, hours and con-
ditions of employment of the employees involved in the ar-
bitration proceedings with the wages, hours and conditions
of employment of other employees performing the same or
similar services and with other employees generally.” It is my
job to find those comparisons for law enforcement officers
in similar jurisdictions. After entering the data, it is a sim-
ple step to filter it by demographics, including municipality
characterization, crime rate, population, etc. Carter, my son,
was not impressed.
The next stage of my training was a reading assignment
that forms the legal basis of public employment labor rela-
tions in the State of NJ. I digested Title 34 (NJ Employer-Em-
ployee Relations Act) and Title 4A (Civil Service Code), each
with a Romeo y Julieta 1875 Churchill and Buffalo Trace old
fashioned. Carter was quickly losing interest, but I was truly
fascinated by the simplicity of the rules that make it possi-
ble to work in an environment earning a decent wage under
fair conditions. I was imagining innovative ways to present
this to the attendees of the 32nd annual PBA Collective Bar-
gaining Seminar next February in Atlantic City, my first as
coordinator.
The next day George received a call from a delegate with a
question about a possible grievance. The call was on speak-
erphone and after the situation was explained, George intro-
duced me and said that I would answer the question. Based
on my training and experience, I advised him that it was not
a grievance, so he should contact the Local’s attorney and
CONTINUED ON PAGE 20
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