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Chattanooga: Unions organizing in effort to topple mayor

By: Cliff Hightower
(Contact)

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Jeff Bernsten

A coalition of city employee unions is trying to recruit people to run against Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield in the March election, and leading the charge could be a union that helped put him in office four years ago.

Jeff Bernsten, lead organizer for the Service Employees International Union here, said that besides targeting the mayor’s office, union officials are looking for City Council candidates to run in the upcoming election.

Mr. Bernsten said the unions’ concerns center on a lack of communication from the mayor’s office, low pay for top city employees and a pending controversy over pensions for police officers and firefighters.

“Not letting folks know what is going on is the main thing,” Mr. Bernsten said. “It’s no secret we campaigned for (Mr. Littlefield)”

The SEIU Local 205 contributed $10,000 to Mr. Littlefield’s campaign in 2005, records show. After the election, Mr. Littlefield allowed the unionization of the city’s work force by SEIU.

Mr. Littlefield said this week in a prepared statement that it was unfortunate union representatives have taken a negative view of pay issues and the examination of the fire and police pension fund.

“Our goal is to be fiscally responsible with taxpayer dollars,” he said. “Union representation of employees does not necessarily guarantee control of all aspects of city government.”

Within a few weeks, several city employee unions could gather to discuss recruiting opposition to Mr. Littlefield and City Council members, Mr. Bernsten said. The unions involved could include the Police Benevolent Association, Fraternal Order of Police, International Brotherhood of Police Officers and Chattanooga Firefighters Association Local 820, officials said.

Contacted this week, representatives of all four unions said election recruitment for both races would be a possibility. Union representatives said they may run newspaper advertisements seeking candidates, and at least two prominent local attorneys have been targeted for potential mayoral runs. They declined to give the names of the attorneys.

Sgt. C.W. Joel, president of the Police Benevolent Association, said the unions began talking about recruiting candidates last December. He said low pay for senior police officers and firefighters combined with declining health benefits and the possibility of a shrinking pension led to searching for candidates who are public-safety friendly.

The Police Benevolent Association did not endorse Mr. Littlefield in 2005, he said.

“This has brought together unification we’ve never seen before,” he said. “We’ve never felt our collective backs against the wall.”

Union officials said they think Mr. Littlefield is vulnerable even after the announcement of Volkswagen coming to Chattanooga.

“He might ride a positive wave because of that,” said Chattanooga Police Department Sgt. Tom McKinney, president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers. “It’s just that specific issues in the city have not been addressed.”

Union officials said one issue that angered them is a pay study conducted last year that showed discrepancies in pay between veterans and less-experienced employees. The mayor and City Council approved base-pay salary increases in May, but the raises were more substantial for less-experienced employees than for veteran, long-term employees, union representatives said.

City Council Chairman Linda Bennett said more raises are scheduled to be implemented for city employees in upcoming years.

“That was only the first layer of it,” she said.

As for the pension plan, the city is waiting on a study to be completed to determine a new deferred retirement option. City Council members have discussed placing any proposed changes to the police and fire pension on the November ballot for public vote.

Councilman Jack Benson said this week he voted against the city’s pay raise structure last year because he felt it was unfair. But he said any union disagreements with the council on the pension fund are early, because nothing has been decided.

“Their disagreement with us is premature,” he said.

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