Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By P.J. GLISSON
Wakefield — The Wakefield City Council voted Monday evening 4-1 to approve a change in the dates of seasonal shift changes for city workers to coincide with Memorial Day and Labor Day holidays, rather than with daylight savings time.
The decision is contingent upon union workers’ approval — something predicted by City Manager Robert Brown, Jr.
Last year, city workers changed from a five-day schedule of eight-hour shifts to a four-day schedule of 10-hour shifts during the period of daylight savings time from spring to fall.
This year, Brown said, some union workers are proposing that the change in schedule coincide instead with Memorial Day on May 31 and Labor Day on Sept. 6.
The change from comparative daylight savings adjustments on March 14 and Nov. 7 would reduce the four-day week schedule from 34 weeks to 14 weeks.
The schedule change prompted a discussion among council members regarding why the schedule changes at all.
“What is the purpose of the 4/10?” asked Amy Tarro. “To me, you’re not getting any more work out of those guys in those two hours. It’s better for them to be there five days. You’re getting diddly-squat. You’re wasting money.”
“It never made any sense to me,” said Kay Wiita. “I don’t think the union should have anything to say about it.”
Tarro added that the city operated for years without such a seasonal switch and then “suddenly changed it.”
She also questioned council support for the change by challenging Mayor Dale White.
“Dale, you never liked it either. Then, all of a sudden you changed your mind.”
White said he doesn’t care what schedule the employees choose. “As long as they got their work done by the end of the day, it’s OK by me.”
White said the workers themselves have disagreed on whether to make the seasonal change. “I had half the crew tell me they’d rather stay on the eights,” he claimed. “I had the other half say they’d rather be on tens.”
But he concluded, “At the end of the day, I don’t think it was our call.”
Brown explained that how to handle shift hours is a “bargainable issue” within the union contract, and city attorney Ray O’Dea agreed.
“It is an issue we have to bargain over,” said O’Dea. “It isn’t an issue we have to concede.”
Tarro also asked why the council even has to act on the matter if the council vote is contingent upon the union vote.
“It has to be a mutual agreement,” said Brown.
Tarro, White, Wiita and Scott Heikkila voted to approve the seasonal shift from daylight savings time to Memorial Day and Labor Day.
Council Member James Anderson issued the single nay vote, claiming that union members would change their mind again in short order.
