Saugus union withdraws petition against Bisignani

SAUGUS – The Teamsters Local 25 withdrew its petition against Town Manager Andrew Bisignani after leaving him waiting for nearly an hour to testify at a hearing that never happened.No one but Bisignani and his attorney Jay Sullivan showed up for the hearing called for by the Teamsters, which accused Bisignani of union busting. Bisignani and Sullivan waited alone in a conference room for just under an hour before a commission representative informed them the petition had been withdrawn.The Teamsters filed a petition against Bisignani after Local 25 was invited to come in and help department heads unionize. The petition claimed that Bisignani was not only trying to break the fledgling union, he was also misusing tax dollars by forcing the hearing.Sullivan, the town’s labor attorney all but called the petition absurd.Sullivan said Bisignani was not against the union per se but he argued that certain positions that handled sensitive information should be excluded.Sullivan said the argument was a no-brainer because the law supports it. “There is a long history of these cases,” he said.Sullivan said employees such as Sue Dunn, the manager’s administrative assistant and the personnel director are excluded from the union by law because of the information they are exposed to through their positions.”It’s just the way the law works,” Sullivan said.Although it wasn’t needed Bisignani came to the hearing prepared. He had with him a petition officially signed by 10 department heads stating they essentially wanted no part of the Teamsters action.Although Town Accountant Joan Regan and Personnel Director Fran Trainor were scheduled to testify Monday as well neither appeared at the hearing. Both had signed the petition that claimed to not support the Teamsters actions.Bisignani said he appreciated the actions of those who signed the petition.”It’s a credit to them, they didn’t want things to be adversarial,” he said. “They did not want to be in the position of confrontation, which is what the Teamsters was trying to create.”In fact no one but Bisignani and Sullivan appeared at the hearing.The Labor Relations Commission had no comment on the issue.When asked why the hearing was canceled Ed Srednicki, executive secretary for the commission said simply the union withdrew its petition.