Teamsters file complaint against North Las Vegas after contracts denied

Teamsters Local 14 is pushing back after North Las Vegas backed out of tentative labor agreements with the group amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In a complaint filed April 7 with the state-run Government Employee-Management Relations Board, the Teamsters union contends that the city failed to bargain in good faith. It wants to force the city to ratify the contracts that were negotiated.

If the union can’t get an order for the city to ratify the contracts and the board instead orders both sides to bargain, the union wants the board to order the city to make the final agreement retroactive to July 1, 2019.

The city declined to comment on the complaint, citing a pending legal matter.

On April 1, the North Las Vegas City Council voted 4-1 to deny three contracts, which included benefits such as cost-of-living raises retroactive to last July, as well as additional cost-of-living raises in the upcoming fiscal year. Councilman Isaac Barron was the only council member to support approval of the contracts.

At the meeting, Assistant City Manager Alfredo Melesio Jr. told council members that the city and the union had tentatively agreed to a contract extension last year, but the labor group’s membership voted against it.

He said the city and the union had negotiated since last summer and came to a new tentative agreement, but that agreement did not account for the effects of the pandemic.

Melesio said the union declined to go back to the bargaining table ahead of the council’s vote.

But Teamsters Local 14 claims that North Las Vegas never tried to go back to negotiations before voting down the contracts.

“As of the date of the filing of this complaint, the city has still not identified any articles within the tentative agreements reached with Teamsters Local 14 which the city desires to revisit or renegotiate,” the filing says. “In fact, the city refuses to conduct negotiations with Teamsters Local 14.”

During the meeting, Mayor John Lee said he wants the city to go back to negotiations.

The union argues that there is nothing about the coronavirus pandemic that necessitates suspension of collective bargaining agreements or refusal to negotiate.

Before the outbreak of the new coronavirus, North Las Vegas’ anticipated revenue growth would have allowed for the pay increases in the contracts, but the city now faces financial uncertainty, Finance Director William Harty told the council.

“While we have not been able to quantify the full financial impact of the current pandemic for the city, it is safe to say that the risk of a structural deficit has greatly increased, potentially as early as 2021,” Harty said during the meeting.

Teamsters Local 14 represents employees in nearly every city department. The three contracts covered supervisors, nonsupervisors and administrative staff and, as written, were worth $12.9 million.

Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter.