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By: Chris Brady
SOMERVILLE – On May 20, Somerville Mayor Jake Wilson joined the Greater Boston Labor Council (GBLC) for their municipal legislative breakfast at the Somerville Armory. There, he gave a speech supporting unions.
Somerville worker Kate Bossingham testified during a May 28 City Council meeting that after the breakfast, which was presumably paid for with GBLC workers’ union dues, Wilson returned to City Hall to join a layoffs meeting with members of Somerville Workers United (SWU). According to Bossingham, two days later, Wilson notified the City that layoffs had been completed. Thirteen workers were laid off, a majority of which came from the city’s Health and Human Services Department, while sixteen vacant roles were cut.
Two unions stand as both survivor and bulwark of resistance against the mayor’s austerity. Somerville city workers are split in representation between Somerville Municipal Employees Union (SMEU) and recently organized Somerville Workers United (SWU) – AFSCME 93. Both unions are fighting for contracts with SWU fights for management recognition. Even as the mayor cuts union workers, the city has enlisted former Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Steve Tolman to assist with negotiations.
“I cannot say strongly enough that we cut positions, not people,” Wilson said in a statement, citing a $5.4 million budget deficit for the move.
The mayor may cut positions, but it was people with positions who lost their jobs: stability, future, even food on the table.
“We don’t disappear on people” – until we do
Emily Mayernik, a licensed mental health counselor for the city, was in one of those positions cut by the mayor’s decree. In that role, Mayernik indicated to Working Mass, she provided support and community programming to children and families in the social services team.
“I worked with immigrant families. I worked with people experiencing major mental health concerns,” said Mayernik. “I worked with vulnerable people.”
Mayernik was a SMEU member. The process for layoffs, as she understood, was that the city must notify the union before a layoff of a bargaining unit member. A negotiation process would follow; staffing cuts generally adhere to processes outlined in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
According to Mayernik, normal procedure was not followed. The city laid off an SMEU colleague on May 20 and notified SMEU only on May 21, the day after, while at the same time informing the union that Mayernik would be laid off the next day. Mayernik reports that SMEU sent a cease and desist letter to the city – which was ignored.
Mayernik was informed on Thursday morning to report to HR that afternoon, where she was dismissed. Despite her requests for time to close out her work, Mayernik said she was forced to go home immediately after that meeting, even though she still had active cases and patients relying on her.
“This is really unethical,” Mayernik said, arguing that the goodbye process is essential given the vulnerable populations that she served.
“We don’t disappear on people. That’s not acceptable behavior.”
She clarified that she did not object to the layoff itself, but specifically the rushed process and norm-breaking ‘ghosting’ that is tantamount to malpractice in her profession. Mayernik believes this endangered some of Somerville’s most vulnerable people.
“I just disappeared.”
Equity professionals were also caught in the mayor’s crosshairs. Luis Q, previously a Strategic Planning and Equity Manager with the city and a worker-organizer with SWU hired during the administration of Ballantyne, was among the laid off. It is unclear if his occupation, with DEI initiatives entering the culture war, or work with SWU contributed to his layoff.
SWU not yet recognized
Back at the breakfast of the Greater Boston Labor Council, according to Somerville sustainability planner Josh Eckert-Lee, the mayor told a SWU organizer he was “excited to meet with [them].”
Wilson had ignored the previous two requests to meet with SWU, effectively dodging requests for voluntary recognition of the nascent union. Later that same day, Wilson initiated layoffs, which included three organizing committee or core organizers of SWU.
Eckert-Lee argued that “a fair amount of these layoffs could absolutely be seen as retaliatory.”
Somerville City Council voted unanimously to recommend endorsing voluntary recognition of SWU at the May 28 meeting.
Eckert-Lee believes that Wilson enjoys the clout associated with speaking highly of labor, but “when it comes time to walk the walk,” the mayor found it easier to cut people, particularly those with more ‘controversial’ roles like Luis’s.
In a statement to Working Mass, Wilson said he met with SWU in late May. The mayor cited competing union petitions filed with the Massachusetts Department of Labor Relations (DLR) as the reason he has not yet granted voluntary recognition:
There are currently open petitions filed with the DLR by two unions claiming the right to represent some of the positions involved here. In this situation, we’re required by law to remain neutral as to which union should ultimately represent these employees.
Wilson added that once the DLR resolves the representation questions, meaning SMEU and SWU, the city will engage with workers and their designated representative. Eckert-Lee indicated, regarding the DLR decision, that “this is all new and being actively sorted.”
But the request for the Mayor to meet with workers remains.
The mayor’s comments neglect that his administration has agency outside of deferring to legal bureaucratic institutions, or that it is fairly common for workers to dual-card across multiple unions, meaning a focus on this distinction is avoidance of actual action – like voluntary recognition.
Eckert-Lee said:
We’re organizing because we want to serve the city well. It becomes much harder to do that when we have no agency in advocating for ourselves.
There will be more layoffs in three months, workers believe. In the coming weeks of budget management, and coming days of negotiations with SWU, the mayor has a choice. Will Jake Wilson continue to smile at one labor crowd while cutting the other? Will Jake Wilson actually support the workers he champions to the GBLC or continue his anti-labor austerity till held accountable?
Chris Brady is a member of Boston DSA and an editor of Working Mass.
The post The Wilson Cuts: Somerville Mayor Lays Off Union Organizers, ‘Disappears’ Mental Health Counselors appeared first on Working Mass.
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