Nathan McGrath: Labor Day rings hollow for these Pa. workers

This Labor Day, union officials will deliver speeches and march in parades, claiming to be champions of the little guy. But for too many public employees in Pennsylvania, there’s not much to celebrate when it comes to union representation.

Certainly not for Mindy McFetridge, a PennDOT equipment operator in Venango County. When her workplace shut down during the pandemic, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union officials circled the wagons around themselves, leaving her out in the cold.

McFetridge, a single mom whose daughter suffers from a serious medical condition, was told that she could either burn her paid time off (PTO) or take unemployment. Both options were bad: McFetridge saves her PTO to take care of her daughter, but going on unemployment would cost her seniority — the key to the jobsite flexibility she and her daughter needed.

McFetridge soon learned that while her PTO dwindled, one crew kept working — a crew made up entirely of men — some with less seniority than her. The kicker: The men were either local union officials or their friends and family.

When she went to the statewide union for help, AFSCME officials stonewalled her and stopped taking her calls. McFetridge is now suing the union, alleging it colluded with PennDOT to break contractual seniority rules so that union officials and their friends could stay on the job during the shutdown.

She’s not alone. Across Pennsylvania, other public employees are realizing that union officials sometimes serve themselves and their allies instead of the employees they claim to represent.

Philadelphia firefighter captain Joe Farrell found that out the hard way. Farrell paid dues to the International Association of Firefighters, Local 22, for nearly 40 years, trusting the union to look out for his best interests. Then he discovered that, for years, union officials had been steering him and his colleagues away from a benefit that could have boosted their pensions, according to his pending lawsuit against the union.

Philadelphia firefighters had been able to increase their retirement benefits by selling back unused vacation days before they retired. But Farrell says union officials advised him not to sell back his time. By the time he learned the truth, it was too late.

Farrell believes union officials pushed this bad advice to at least 100 city firefighters, while quietly preserving the vacation sellback opportunity for themselves and their friends, according to court filings. One union official allegedly told Farrell that “if too many fire department employees sold back their vacation time, the city would eliminate the benefit.” Farrell is suing the union for violating its duty of fair representation under state law.

And then there’s Josh Newcomer.

Newcomer, a correctional counselor at a federal prison in Allenwood, thought his union would fight for him when a baseless investigation cost him tens of thousands of dollars in lost pay, court documents say. The local president of the American Federation of Government Employees even called the case a “goldmine” after Newcomer was cleared of any wrongdoing. But Newcomer says that after a private meeting with a prison official, the union president let the deadline for Newcomer’s grievance quietly expire.

When Newcomer asked what happened, the union president didn’t deny it. He just told him: “File a grievance on me and the union for improper representation.” Meanwhile, according to Newcomer’s labor charge against the union, other employees with close connections to union officials had their grievances handled more carefully — and won them.

That wasn’t solidarity. That was betrayal.

Now, Newcomer is suing his union to recover lost wages and hold it accountable.

These aren’t isolated incidents. They’re symptoms of a larger problem.

The law says union officials must provide fair representation to all the employees they represent. But too often, they pick and choose whom to help, when to help, or whether to help at all, in ways that seem to benefit themselves. They may quietly stand down if an employee’s problem threatens their relationship with management. In McFetridge’s and Farrell’s cases, a rank-and-file worker’s loss became a union official’s gain.

That’s why the slogans and speeches of Labor Day may ring hollow for many public workers. The Fairness Center represents McFetridge, Farrell and Newcomer in court pro bono. But they shouldn’t have needed our help.

If Pennsylvania’s workers can’t count on their own unions, then Labor Day shouldn’t just be a celebration — it should be a wake-up call.

Nathan McGrath is president and general counsel at the Fairness Center, a nonprofit law firm that represents those hurt by public-sector union officials.