Waterbury municipal workers look to unionize

January 4, 2025 | By Lisa Scagliotti

Waterbury’s municipal employees have started the new year with a push to unionize, filing a formal request with the state on Friday. 

Employees at the town offices and library would be part of a new labor union. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti

A spokeswoman at the Vermont Labor Relations Board and a union organizer confirmed that 24 of 28 staff members at the Waterbury town offices, library, highway department and the water and wastewater plants had signed on in support of a request to form a collective bargaining unit. 

The workers have chosen the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union – known as AFSCME for short – to represent them. 

AFSCME represents workers in public and private sector workplaces. According to its website, it has represented public service employees in Vermont since 1953 and currently has more than 9,500 members in the state across 46 bargaining units, most recently having added approximately 7,500 home care workers to its membership. 

Waterbury Municipal Manager Tom Leitz on Friday said he was aware of the development but he could not comment on it yet. Leitz said he would discuss the matter with the town attorney regarding the next steps and with the selectboard. The Waterbury Selectboard meets next on Monday at 7 p.m.

“It’s unique that a town the size of Waterbury is not organized,” said AFSCME union Coordinator Dave Van Deusen. “Almost every town this size in Vermont is unionized – many smaller ones too. We just organized Brighton with three employees [last] year. Killington has five.”

Van Deusen said it’s important for people to know that the motivation behind the organizing effort is positive. “This is not borne out of anger or resentment. The employees want to have as positive an impact as possible,” he said. “There’s no workplace in the world that can’t be made better… This is centered around a deep-felt Vermont connection to democracy and wanting to extend that to the workplace. This is not going to battle with an employer, but rather a partnership.” 

In fact, Van Deusen pointed out that Waterbury workers are using a process that was recently updated by the state legislature in 2024 through a bill that state Rep. Tom Stevens, D-Waterbury, worked to get passed. He called it “almost a storybook ending” that one of the first organizing efforts under the process revised by S.102, the Vermont Protect the Right to Organize Act, is playing out in Waterbury. 

“Part of that was the creation of a more democratic way to form a labor union in a work site,” Van Deusen said. 

About 15 years ago, Waterbury Highway Department staff had a labor union for several years. File photo by Gordon Miller

Workers looking to organize sign cards attesting to their support for union representation. Under the old rules, an election would follow before bargaining could begin but there often could be a lengthy wait before a vote was scheduled, potentially disrupting worker momentum and weakening support for forming a union. The new law allows for the initial employee cards to suffice as the needed show of support to move forward to negotiating a contract. 

“It’s inspiring to see this great new right for workers happening in Waterbury,” Van Deusen said. “In many ways, Tom Stevens – who’s a true labor champion – did yeoman’s work to get it through the General Assembly.” 

Reached Friday, Stevens said, “This is exactly what this legislation was meant for.” 

Stevens said he had not heard an organizing effort was underway, but he supports town employees’ right to do so. The changes made to the labor law are meant to streamline the process, making it easier for workers and managers to get to discussing important issues more directly. “This is a viable tool for all workers to take some control over the jobs they like to do and they’re good at,” he said. “It takes antagonism out of the process.” 

Based on past experience, Van Deusen said he’s looking forward to negotiations for Waterbury workers. He said he knows Leitz, who worked in city government in St. Albans before being hired in 2022 to be Waterbury’s municipal manager. “I bargained with Tom [Leitz] when he was in St. Albans and had a great experience there. I’m looking forward to bargaining with him again.”

Van Deusen said he recalls contract talks in St. Albans leading to steps to expand employee training and credentialing and adding more “ladders and incentives” into the workplace culture. “I’ve seen [Leitz] transform municipal government in a positive way. He was a pleasure to work with.” 

Backdrop: Health insurance changes 

The move by Waterbury employees comes on the heels of recent changes made to health insurance benefits that the town administration – Leitz and the select board – has made, affecting staff across all departments. Staff at the town offices also formed a safety committee in 2024 to discuss and recommend updates to the municipal building to improve building security, some of which are being included in the proposed town budget for 2025. 

The health benefits change impacts all municipal employees. The new system involves the municipality choosing just one insurance provider – MVP – for workers’ coverage, a switch from past practice that allowed employees to choose from a variety of plans and providers with the town paying each employee a stipend to put towards their health care expenses. Given increases in health insurance costs for 2025, Leitz presented the new arrangement as being economical for both the municipality and employees. The Waterbury Select Board and Edward Farrar Utility District Board of Commissioners both approved the new arrangement at a joint meeting on Nov. 4. 

After hearing negative feedback from staff members about the new benefits, however, the select board at its Nov. 18 meeting voted unanimously to pay half of the employee health insurance deductible costs for 2025, the first year under the new plan. The total deductibles under the new MVP plan are $1,650 for single coverage and $3,300 for family coverage. The EFUD board followed suit, voting on Dec. 11 to follow suit to so that EFUD benefits match the town’s package. EFUD, which runs the water and wastewater departments as an independent entity, currently has three employees covered by the employee health plan.

Steps ahead

The labor organizing effort aims to include workers at Waterbury’s water and (above) wastewater treatment plants which are run by the Edward Farrar Utility District, called EFUD. File photo by Gordon Miller

A first step in any new union organizing effort is for both sides to agree on which workers are eligible to be covered by a potential contract. In the case of the municipality, management personnel who supervise staff such as the town manager, public works, library and recreation directors would not be included. Van Deusen said elected officials such as the town clerk would also not be covered. One issue to discuss, he noted, likely will be how to include EFUD employees given that the utility district is an independent municipal entity. Van Deusen said there would be “due diligence” needed, but he was confident a solution could be found. 

Van Deusen said a contract would aim to cover both full-time and part-time workers, noting that other municipal contracts AFSCME has in place include part-time positions. 

Van Deusen said he did not want to guess how long it would take to negotiate a contract for Waterbury workers. “A first contract does on average take longer because you’re doing everything for the first time,” he noted. 

If the current employees are successful in getting a contract, it would be the first time that a union would represent all of the municipal staff. 

The former Waterbury Village Police Department had union representation. The department was disbanded when the village municipality was dissolved in 2018. 

In 2009, workers at the town Highway Department organized and negotiated a contract under representation by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union. That arrangement covered just five highway employees. The group decertified its union membership after its initial three-year contract ended, according to former Municipal Manager Bill Shepeluk. 

Van Deusen said he’s optimistic that the negotiation process will result in positive change. “It gives working people a seat at the table, creating a democratic process around working conditions,” he said. 

He pointed to the town office safety committee as an example. Such a group is common in union workplaces. “The beauty of a safety committee is that union stewards sit across from management and they’re all equals. They have an opportunity to speak candidly about safety issues that might not be the case in a non-union environment.” 

In addition to unionized staff and teachers in local public schools and state employees working at state offices in Waterbury, workers at the Waterbury Ben & Jerry’s ice cream plant recently successfully landed their first labor agreement. Creating a union for municipal workers builds on that momentum, Van Deusen said. “We see this as a win-win for the labor movement in Waterbury.”