The St. Croix Police Benevolent Association and St. Croix Law Enforcement Supervisors Union have filed suit against the V.I. Government, seeking an injunction to stop the 8 percent government pay cut enacted last week as part of an emergency budget stabilization act.
The 8 percent cut for all government employees making more than $26,000 per year was passed by the Legislature in June and signed by Gov. John deJongh Jr. last week to avoid impending layoffs due to insufficient funds.
The suit, filed in federal district court in the U.S. Virgin Islands, argues the act violates the U.S. Organic Acts of 1954, by impairing contracts because the pay cuts violate the unions’ collective bargaining agreements. Alternatively, it also argues the act was enacted improperly because it was not presented by the governor to the Legislature, citing the passages of the organic acts (the functional equivalent to a constitution for the territory until there is such a creature) that require the governor to submit an annual budget and the Legislature to act upon the budget.
When reached Friday afternoon for comment, attorney Nizar DeWood, who filed the suit on behalf of the two unions, said the unions had a legally binding contract and the government had no choice but to honor it. Asked about layoffs the government says will be unavoidable without the pay cuts or some immediate, large, unexpected influx of money, DeWood downplayed the concern.
"My response is that is a false choice," DeWood said. "You can’t hold people hostage saying there will be layoffs if we don’t get these cuts done." DeWood went on to say there had not been enough transparency to truly demonstrate that there really was a financial crisis and no other way to solve it but layoffs or pay cuts. He cited millions of dollars in uncollected taxes from years past as one source of funding to fill the gap.
If cuts had to be done, the unions needed to sign off first, he said. "Our clients should have at least had the opportunity for concession bargaining. … What is the point of collective bargaining if it can be set aside whenever someone says there is a crisis?"
Gov. John deJongh Jr. and Senate President Ronald Russell both expressed disappointment upon hearing of the lawsuit.
"We made an agreement across the board with every entity we met with, and to see the unions apparently prefer the termination of hundreds of workers instead of accepting pay cuts disappoints me, but we live in a democracy," Russell said when reached by telephone Friday afternoon. "We particularly didn’t think we would be in court defending our actions against the very unions we met with."
DeJongh expressed similar sentiments in a statement issued Friday.
“I find it hard to believe that the union membership – people who serve and protect our community – could possibly be so callous as to want us to dismiss hundreds of their fellow workers,” deJongh said.
The governor said he was especially surprised by the suit because they had participated in the discussions, knew the financial situation and knew over 600 workers were to be dismissed in the first wave and another 800 or more in the coming fiscal year.
"Indeed, when I met with union officials earlier in this process, they were the ones who requested that we take the approach of cutting pay for all rather than sending people home," DeJongh said. "And yet, what they are now saying is that they would rather folks be sent home with nothing than for all to share in the burden of weathering the financial storm.”
