After going a year without one, employees from the Department of Public Safety have voted in favor of forming a new union, which is now on its way to certification.

The vote to form the Syracuse University Public Safety Officers union was decided 33-3 in a Jan. 11 meeting for 54 full- and regular part-time DPS employees, DPS Chief Tony Callisto said. The voting took place in Hendricks Chapel from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The Buffalo chapter of the National Labor Relations Board plans to certify the union as long as no objection was filed by the time its office closed Tuesday, said Paul Murphy, assistant to the regional director for the NLRB. When offices closed at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Murphy said he was not aware of any filed objections.

For four years, DPS was part of a national union, the Security Police and Fire Professionals of America. The new group will not be a national organization and will be specific for DPS, Callisto said.

Last November, DPS decertified its former union. Under national regulation rules, there has to be a one-year election bar. Callisto said there could not be a successor union until one year after DPS decertified from its previous union.

‘We worked with employees for the past year when they weren’t unionized. We’re going to work with the association and work with the employees while they’re unionized,’ Callisto said. ‘It doesn’t have a negative impact on the relationship between the DPS administration and the employees at all. We’ll likely be working with the same local leadership that they had when they were unionized before, so it’s not a significant change.’

Forming their own union means members will bargain with the university on employee details, Callisto said.

‘Affected members will now collectively bargain with the university for benefits and wages,’ Callisto said. ‘DPS administration will work with union leadership on terms and conditions of employment.’

A petition asking to hold the election was filed with the NLRB on Dec. 1, Murphy said. When the voting took place, 36 employees of the eligible 54 employees voted to form the union, Murphy said.

The union will represent all full-time and regular part-time safety officers, community service officers and communications specialists employed by DPS, Murphy said. The university will have to go through DPS’ union to discuss the terms and services of employment, such as wages, benefits and work hours, Murphy said.

The university ‘will respect the results and work closely with the union to negotiate the collective bargaining agreement,’ according to a Jan. 13 SU News Services release.

dkmcbrid@syr.edu

— Asst. News Editor Jon Harris contributed reporting to this article.

Published on January 17, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Dara: dkmcbrid@syr.edu | @daramcbride