Leo Tudela
THE Commonwealth Ports Authority will not engage in collective bargaining agreement negotiation with the Northern Marianas Professional Firefighters Union until concerns about the union’s claim of exclusive representation of all firefighters in the CNMI is addressed.
In November, the union’s president, Fire Capt. Paul B. Sasamoto, notified CPA Executive Director Leo Tudela that NMIPFU-International Association of Firefighters Local 5335 is the sole and exclusive representative for all full-time firefighters in the CNMI, including those employed by CPA’s Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting unit.
Sasamoto’s letter also expressed the union’s intent to mutually begin negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement. He said they will submit a proposal “that outlines a wide range of critical and important areas that pertain to and affect labor and employee relation issues [involving] firefighters who are collective bargaining unit members.”
In his response, Tudela told Sasamoto that CPA “is, in good faith, withholding recognition of NMPFU as the sole and exclusive representative ‘for all full-time firefighters employed by CPA-ARFF’ because the bargaining unit is not clearly defined.”
Tudela said CPA cannot determine whether NMPFU represents all firefighters of CPA-ARFF.
Sasamoto provided Tudela a letter from CPA firefighters notifying the union that they are affiliating themselves as collective bargaining unit employees. Of the 32 CPA firefighters on the list attached to the letter, 24 signed it.
Tudela noted that the list includes only the firefighters on Saipan. He said CPA is questioning whether the composition of the bargaining unit also includes managers, supervisors, and dual-purpose firefighters/port police at the Rota and Tinian airports and seaports.
Tudela said CPA also questions the union’s claim that it has obtained the majority status representing firefighters in the CNMI. He said it is unclear as to how the employees’ signatures were obtained.
CPA asserts that the circulation of a petition “is an inherently unreliable indicator of employee support because employees may sign the petition for a variety of reasons, are often misled about such petitions, and often do not understand what the petition they are signing means or the effects thereof,” Tudela said.
CPA, he added, “anticipates a clarification of the bargaining unit and a verification of the union’s majority status. Once these essential steps are completed, CPA will bargain collectively with the union, in full accordance with the law,” Tudela said.
In his reply, Sasamoto asked Tudela to provide the union with specific details on what information CPA is seeking to satisfy its concerns pertaining to the union’s majority status and exclusive representation of firefighters in the CNMI.
