December 18, 2015
A neutral arbitrator this week ruled that MFY was wrong in categorizing their Assistant Controller as a management position. The arbitrator ruled that the Assistant Controller position should instead be included in the union.
In February 2015, MFY hired a staff member in the newly created position of Assistant Controller. The MFY shop filed a grievance when MFY refused to include the position in the union. After the MFY executive director denied the grievance, a hearing was eventually held before an arbitrator in October.
The arbitrator made several important rulings in the case. She held that the “management rights clause” does not give management the “right to unilaterally decide which new titles should be included in the unit.” She also found it compelling that our union includes many different job titles within the same union, and there is wide variation in the degree of skill and background required. This persuaded the arbitrator that an assistant controller could belong within the group of job titles within the union. The wall-to-wall nature of our union was an important factor in expanding our union umbrella to cover more job titles.
We look forward to welcoming the Assistant Controller into our union!