June 10, 2008
Fosters
ROCHESTER — Nearly 30 city employees want to form a management union, just as the City Council considers cuts that could cost workers their jobs.
Employment uncertainty due to the proposed budget apparently factored into the group’s decision. “Everybody is going to have to speak for themselves, but it seems to me that it’s hard to understate the significance of the challenge the City Council is facing this year,” said Planning Director Kenn Ortmann, representative of the Rochester Municipal Management Group.
There’s also the issue of equity. “Benefits that have been accrued to unionized groups have been better, at least marginally better, than what has been accrued to nonunionized groups,” Ortmann said. “While there was general parity, if there was any slippage at all it happened with the nonunion group as opposed to the union group.”