ST. CROIX — The United Steelworkers union has been awarded a $20.4 million arbitration settlement after a 12-year fight for retroactive wages owed from 2009-2013 to over 500 bargaining unit employees working as support staff in 21 different Virgin Islands government agencies and departments, according to a union representative.
The Office of the Governor has agreed to provide the information necessary to calculate the amount owed to each affected employee and to formally request that the Legislature appropriates monies sufficient to pay the aggregate amounts owed within 90 days of the award, which the arbitrator, attorney Jacqueline Drucker, ordered on June 28.
Jerry Jackson, USW District 9 staff representative for eight USW locals in the Virgin Islands, including four on St. Croix and four on St. Thomas, said he thinks the affected employees will be pleased that the union is working for them.
“That is what your union dues actually goes towards — to fight these matters,” he said. “A lot of people feel like they just pay union dues, and don't get nothing out of it. But this is what we actually do. That is our job to grieve these matters.”
Considering the Office of the Governor agreed to request the $20.4 million from the Legislature within 90 days of the June 28 order, Jackson said he is hopeful the lawmaking body will identify a funding source to be included in the fiscal year 2025, which begins October 1.
“The parties further agree that the arbitrator has retained jurisdiction to ensure compliance with this award,” he said. “So, therefore, we’re hoping that within this budget for fiscal year ’25 that it’s included within the budget.”
Senate President Novelle Francis Jr. indicated in a response to WTJX via text message that the Legislature would identify funds in the upcoming fiscal year budget to pay the retroactive wages owed.
“Our current review of the FY ’25 budget forecasts some significant revenue challenges and the USW settlement award will be included in the overall funding plan,” he wrote. “At this juncture it is difficult to determine exactly when the payment would be made as vendors, other retroactivity, income tax refund, and payroll payments are pending.”
The arbitration settlement is connected to the union’s master collective bargaining agreement from October 1, 2009 to September 30, 2013, which included one incremental step increase in 2009, and salary increases of 2.5% in fiscal year 2011, 2.25% in FY 2012, and 2.5% in FY 2013, according to the June 28 consent award.
The government, however, did not implement the step increase or salary increases owed to members of USW Local 8248 on St. Croix, and USW Locals 8249 and 8677 on St. Thomas.
Jackson said the union members ratified the initial contract in 2010, the same year voters elected Governor John de Jongh Jr. to serve a second term.
“After that contract was signed in 2011, Governor de Jongh reneged on the contract negotiation — the wages for that particular contract,” he said. “Thereafter, there was a reduction of 8%, there were layoffs during that time, and the union proceeded to grieve this matter to arbitration.”
USW filed a grievance in November 2012 alleging that the government failed to pay the wages that it had agreed to pay to employees covered by the master CBA. The government did not contest that it failed to pay bargaining unit employees the pay rate provided for in the master CBA.
After former Governor Kenneth Mapp took office following the 2014 election, Jackson said Mapp brought the USW members up to the 2012 salary levels with the understanding a request would be made to the Legislature to approve the retroactive amounts owed from 2009 to 2013. Jackson said the process got delayed by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, followed by the coronavirus pandemic that hit the territory in March 2020.
Drucker, an attorney admitted to practice in the state of New York, was selected and appointed in July 2020 as arbitrator in accordance with the CBA between the USW and the government, and the processes of the Public Employees Relations Board. Throughout the proceedings, legal counsel from the Office of Collective Bargaining represented the government, and the union was represented by USW’s international staff representative and legal counsel. Jackson said the government and union were going back and forth with the arbitrator in 2023.
“And now we have finally got the results from the arbitration where there was a settlement agreement because the government at that point, actually stated that based on documentation that they do owe the employees,” Jackson said.
