Make a Stand
Calling all PBA members to support
Cumberland County Corrections brother Bermudez
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
Any NJ State PBA member who has ever felt the slightest sting
of retaliation for trying to uphold a collective bargaining agree-
ment or for speaking out against management practices that
violate said contract should come to the Cumberland County
Freeholders public meeting on Oct. 23 in Bridgeton.
The agenda will be to support Cumberland County Correc-
tions Local 231 President and State Delegate Victor Bermudez,
who has been suspended without pay since May for speaking
out and standing up. Bermudez has spent 21 years speaking
up for Local members who have been unfairly disciplined and
standing up for collectively negotiated contract provisions, and
the retaliation coming from the Cumberland County Jail war-
den as a result should be an affront to every PBA member.
“We have to bring exposure to the retaliatory nature of what
is happening to Victor because he was attempting to perform
his duties as president and State Delegate,” declares Stuart Al-
terman, the attorney who represents Bermudez and Local 231.
“The county wants him removed because they don’t want a con-
tract or a strong union in the way. The warden thinks if he can
get rid of Victor, he can have his way, which is tantamount to be-
ing a right-to- work state and having an anti-union mentality.”
The charge that led to the suspension stems from an incident
when Bermudez was making a trans run with an inmate from
the Cumberland County Jail to an addiction treatment center
in Paterson. The incident was characterized by the warden as
an act of speaking out in an inappropriate manner, and it led to
the suspension.
“He dropped an inmate off at an addiction center,” Alterman
charged. “But the new warden, who he originally supported,
saw him as an aggressive president and delegate. He’s taken a
newly negotiated contract and turned it upside-down and tried
to run the jail like a right-to-work state. Victor has filed multiple
grievances and is actively engaged in defense of the contract.”
In other words, Victor stands up for his members, and the war-
den doesn’t like to be challenged.”
Alterman is asking members to come to the Cumberland
County Freeholders meeting at 6 p.m. on Oct. 23 to stand up for
a brother who appears to be under fire because he has won 90
percent of those grievance arbitrations. He is under fire because
the warden picked an internal affairs investigator who formu-
lated a conclusion and investigated his way to that conclusion
rather than attempting to find the truth.
“It’s absolutely a retaliatory discipline,” Alterman added. “Be-
cause nobody in their right mind would attempt to bring disci-
pline and fire Victor as a result of this particular event.” d
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NEW JERSEY COPS
■ OCTOBER 2018