A police officers’ union has filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board regarding the university’s handling of a vote to determine the Department of Public Safety’s labor representation.
Department of Public Safety officers voted last Friday to continue to be represented by Allied International Union. The United Security and Police Officers of America, the losing union, has filed objections to the handling of the vote while at least one DPS officer has accused Georgetown administrators of manipulating the vote.
ark Baptiste-Kalaris, resident officer of the D.C. office of the National Labor Relations Board, said that 35 ballots were cast for Allied International, 24 were cast for USPOA, and one was cast for no union. He said there were about 67 eligible voters.
The vote, which applies to main campus and Law Center officers, came as DPS officers prepare to negotiate a new contract with the university. The current contract expires in August, according to DPS Communication Officer Victor Johnson, one of the force’s union representatives.
A Law Center officer, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of being fired, said university administrators pressured officers to vote to stay with Allied, which has represented DPS for 33 years.
“Officers felt they were being coerced into voting for Allied,” the officer said. “They’re scared of losing their jobs.”
The officer said that prior to the union vote, Law Center Dean and Executive Vice President T. Alexander Aleinikoff wrote a letter praising Allied to DPS officers and that Georgetown Department of Human Resources employees met with officers before the vote and seemed to favor Allied in their discussions.
“Management is in bed with Allied,” the officer said.
Aleinikoff could not be reached for comment.
Wayne Gold, regional director of the NLRB’s Region 5, which includes D.C., said that USPOA has filed a complaint with NLRB concerning the legitimacy of the election. In the formal complaint, USPOA objected to the university’s mandatory meetings in which it supported Allied and university employees’ letters to DPS officers expressing support for Allied. USPOA has also alleged in its complaint that supervisors met with employees and supported Allied in those meetings, and that Allied disseminated derogatory information about USPOA.
Allied has seven days to file evidence contrary to USPOA’s objections, Gold said.
According to a letter to DPS officers from Mary Anne Mahin, vice president and chief human resources officer in Georgetown’s Department of Human Resources, USPOA petitioned the NLRB on April 2 to represent Georgetown security officers.
“Prior to the recent NLRB election, representatives from Georgetown’s Human Resources staff met with union members impacted to provide accurate, factual information and answer questions about the NLRB’s election process and to encourage employees to exercise their right to vote in the NLRB secret ballot election,” university spokesperson Julie Bataille said in an e-mail.
The anonymous Law Center officer said that the force was divided, with many Law Center officers and newer officers wishing to switch unions and many main campus and veteran officers wanting to remain with Allied. He said that many wanted to switch because Allied has not represented DPS well.
“We find it interesting that after 33 years . nobody has anything positive to say [about Allied],” the officer said.”All they could do was to attack the other union.”
THE HOYA reported in 2007 that the average wage for DPS officers was lower than those of other campus police forces in the area and that attrition was a chronic problem in the force.
Johnson said that little is known about USPOA.
“They never came on campus and spoke to the officers as a group,” he said. “As far as I know, they haven’t spoken to any officers on main campus.”
Johnson described USPOA as “secretive.”
“No one can find any information about them,” he said.
No contact information nor Web site for USPOA could be found yesterday.
Click here for more information about DPS wage concerns.
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