Ron Luneau says he’s ready to go back immediately, despite some two years of bad blood between he and City Hall leaders.
“Of course I’d go back. In this economy? I’m 62. I worked there for 21 years,” the former Derby Department of Public Works employee said.
Luneau and Al Jeanetti were fired from their city jobs last year due, in part, city officials said, for mismanaging the city’s dump — and then refusing to answer questions about their performance.
Luneau has a different take on his firing.
“This whole thing was a witch hunt,” he said. “It’s been a lot of stress. If it wasn’t for my wife having a job, I would have lost my house.”
Luneau and Jeanetti are appealing their terminations through their union to the state Labor Board of Relations.
Luneau believes the chance of getting his job back increased dramatically Dec. 1, when the labor board reinforced their September decision, ordering Annex Associates out of the dump (a copy of the September decision is posted below).
Annex is the private company Derby contracted with to operate the Pine Street dump after Derby kicked out the union DPW workers.
Derby’s move violated a union contract and the city must replace Annex with union workers, the Labor Relations Board said.
“I’m very happpy with the decision that came out in September. The city said they didn’t understand it. Do you understand what ‘cease and desist’ means?” Luneau asked.
City officials point out the Labor Relations Board didn’t order them to put Luneau and Jeanetti back at the dump.
Luneau said the fate of his appeal should be known by the end of the month or early January.
Meanwhile, Alderman Ken Hughes said the city may close the dump if Annex has to vacate. He called the Labor Board’s decisions “irresponsible.”
The Board of Aldermen is expected to convene a special meeting in the next week to discuss options.
The city-owned property has been operating without a permit for years — something the city allegedly discovered after Annex was hired.
Annex was in the long process of obtaining a permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection, Hughes said.
Putting DPW workers back there would leave the workers subject to fines from the state, Hughes said, and leave the city vulnerable to insurance claims.
If DPW workers go back to the dump, the city will have to obtain the permits.
“The city has all intentions to get a permit, but we can’t do it in the 10-day timeframe we have to put (DPW) employees back at the transfer station,” Hughes said.
Annex did a much better job running the dump — and brought in more money for Derby, Hughes said. That did not factor into the State Labor Board’s decision, Hughes said.
“The union is so bent on getting the employees back at the transfer station, they’re not looking at the bigger picture. There are still violations up there. The certified operators (DPW workers) are the ones that could be subject to the fines,” Hughes said. “The union is so bent on filing greivences, they don’t even know what they are grieving.”
Luneau said Hughes is posturing. He said a city employee would never get fined personally if the city opted not to get a permit. He also said a decision to close the dump does not make sense.
“That should go over well with taxpayers,” Luneau said.
Below is the September decision from the Board of Labor Relations against the City of Derby, followed by another decision from Dec. 1. There is a second Dec. 1 decision. However, the Valley Independent Sentinel has been unable to obtain a copy of that decision from the state Department of Labor or Derby City Hall.
