Cherlyn Poindexter fended off a strong challenge Wednesday from Tom Verderame to retain the presidency of the city’s managerial union.
Poindexter will lead AFSCME Local 3144, which represents some 360 city managers, for another two years.
Poindexter won the election 159 to 123.
The incumbent also won in the vice-presidential election. Vice-president Harold Brooks captured 182 votes; his challenger, Gilda Herrera, won 100 votes.
In the race for a seat on the executive board, incumbent Marianne Carolla won 125 votes. Her challengers Thomas Costa and Ashish Desai captured 99 and 34 votes, respectively.
A fuller, earlier version of this story follows:
Thomas MacMillan Photo
3144 chief Poindexter faces a challenger Wednesday.
One candidate called for greater “diplomacy,” the other for staying with “seasoned” leadership during a mayoral transition.
Thomas MacMillan Photo
Challenger Tom Verderame (pictured) and incumbent President Cherlyn Poindexter made those pitches just before members of Local 3144 headed to the polls Wednesday to elect a new president.
The union covers some 360 staffers who work in managerial positions in various city departments. The president serves a two-year term, effective immediately after votes are counted Wednesday night.
Union members will also vote for vice-president. Incumbent Harold Brooks faces a challenge from Gilda Herrera, and for a seat on the executive board, where incumbent Marianne Carolla faces challenges from Thomas Costa and Ashish Desai.
Poindexter (pictured at the top of the story) has held the presidency for four and a half years. A 47-year-old security analyst at the fire department, she has been a union member for 28 years.
Poindexter said she’s proud of securing pensions for employees who are paid out of the general fund budget, not just the general funds. She said she also worked hard against the city’s proposed move from Anthem to Cigna as administrator of the health plan. She banded together with other union presidents to oppose that. Poindexter said she just helped win a settlement for a woman for three years hadn’t been receiving the pension she was properly owed.
With a new mayor coming in, Poindexter said, “it’s important that this union has a leader that knows what they’re doing, that is aware of everything. Someone who’s seasoned.” She said she worked her way up through the ranks of union leadership. “I have a proven record.”
Challenger Verderame is a 55-year-old executive assistant to the head of the parks department. He has been a union member for 25 years.
Verderame said the 3144 president has a unique challenge because of the diverse nature of the union’s membership. They’re not all cops, like the police union. Or all firefighters, like the firefighters union. The city managers are spread out in many different departments. Each has her or his own needs and concerns, Verderame said. He said he’s prepared to advocate for those varied needs as president, using daily diplomacy and aggressive contract negotiation.
Diplomacy
In an interview Tuesday evening at parks department headquarters, Verderame laid out his vision for the presidency.
He said he wants to improve the union’s relationship with the city by taking a more “diplomatic” approach to day-to-day relations. He said cordial daily relations would allow him to be more aggressive in contract negotiations with the city.
Verderame declined to mention specific examples of how he would be more diplomatic than Poindexter.
“I don’t have a confrontational stance with the city,” Poindexter said later. “I respect the mayor. I’ve worked under six labor-relations directors. I’m pretty sure I can call up John DeStefano and have a meeting with him anytime I want.”
At the same time, Poindexter said, “I will do what I need to do to protect my union.”
Vacation
Verderame said he would have handled recent contract negotiations differently, particularly with regard to vacations. He said that some union members went from three weeks of annual vacation to two.
“That’s not something I’d have agreed to,” he said. “I’d have taken it to arbitration.”
Poindexter said the vacation change in the contract affected only new people who have less than a year with the city, a very small number of people.
She pointed out that the contract was approved by a union vote of 173 to 68. “Apparently the majority of the membership was happy with the contract,” she said.
More so than other unions, Local 3144 union members tend to trust the leadership, Verderame said. Even if they’re not happy with a contract, they’ll vote for it, with the assumption that the leadership got the best it could get.
Raises
Verderame said that the union raises have netted out to zero in recent years thanks to increases in medical and pension costs: “That’s a tough pill to swallow.”
He said he would have pushed harder for raises.
“We were in contract negotiations for five years,” said Cherlyn. “So of course in that time there was no raise.” Also during that time, “we didn’t lose anything,” she said.
The raises in the current contract came with increases to medical and pension payments, she acknowledged.
“They go hand in hand. We’ve fared better than other unions in the city of New Haven,” she said. “Overall, I think it’s a good contract.”
Labor Council
Verderame said his first task as president would be to join the New Haven Central Labor Council. “That is the strongest voice for labor in the state of Connecticut,” he said. “[Organizer] Gwen Mills and [President] Bobby Proto do a great job.”
Poindexter said she would leave the question of joining the council up to the 3144 members: “I don’t think that something you should be saying on your own.”
A proven record of what, exactly Ms. Poindexter? As a union member, I have felt either bullied or my concerns shrugged off. As a union member who lives in New Haven, I had to find out that my union was backing a mayoral candidate through news outlets, as opposed to being asked my opinion by my union. I am one of those "new people" who has lost a week of vacation and seen my "raise" canceled out by increases in insurance and pension. You might be willing to "protect your union" in theory, Ms. Poindexter, and a select few within your union, but little for the rest of us. You may be a "seasoned" leader, but that is a spice I want no more of.