BREAKING NEWS -10/25/07
The contract between the Town and the highway workers is an agreement between the two parties who reached this settlement. Nothing is going to be changed in the agreement. The actual signing of the contract is being held up by the refusal of the Town’s Personal Director, Bob McCarthy, to sign the document. Hew is dragging his feet about placing the correct wording in the contract.
The workers are still being paid by their status as of 2005. The contract signed by Chris O’Neil, the President of the Highway Union, and Supervisor Mohan increased the worker’s pay by a small percentage plus they should receive retroactive pay for working without a contract for the last 2 years. The Contract states clearly that the workers will be receiving their back pay starting with the first pay check in September, 2007. So far they haven’t received one cent of their retroactive as of today Oct. 26, 2007,
The Town is making money by not keeping their word about paying the workers what they are owed. They are dragging their feet so the worker’s money gathers interest for the Town. This money along with the interest it has earned thus far, should be paid out to the workers, but we all know the workers will not receive one cent of the interest their money earned for the Town.
The Highway Union has started taking steps to reach Arbitration with the Town. When the Supervisor spoke at the Monday night Special Budget Hearing, Oct. 22, 2007, he said that both sides had signed the contract, meaning the Highway Union and the Town, and it was ratified. That was a total lie.
Any worker, at any job, must be paid what is agreed upon between the worker and the owner of the business. In the case of Amherst and the Highway workers this did not happen because Amherst often has the hardest time keeping their word, to anyone … just ask Thomas Watkins of MicroLink.