Local 4 Scores Huge Arbitration Victory for Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Workers

When management at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth NH, decided to reduce parking space widths to door-ding size and refused to abide by Federal Property Management regulations on how parking spaces should be allocated, IFPTE Local 4 fought back.

After attempting to encourage management to change course, the Local filed a union grievance to get the parking disputes fixed.  The arbitrator ruled in favor of Local 4 in her decision.

Local 4 President, Eudes James, commented on the victory: “Unfortunately, and after much back and forth, Local 4 was forced to file a grievance and go to arbitration to get this situation with the parking resolved. Despite parking for our members being a part of our contract, management gave those spaces away to contractors and others, forcing our members to fend for themselves, causing them to be late for work which led to discipline, and leading to parking tickets. We are very pleased that the arbitrator ruled in our favor and that we could rectify this situation for our members.”  

Local 4 estimates that this would free up from 800 to 1000 or more parking spaces to be allocated to Federal civilian employees in addition to the uniformed members of the Navy who serve aboard the submarines Local 4 members repair at the Shipyard.

See the December 18th Seacoastonline article here.