Union paid $500 of settlement, state paid remaining $260,000

Alex Wood, Journal Inquirer, Manchester, Conn.
·3 min read

May 2—Of the $260,500 settlement won by a retired state police sergeant who alleged in a federal civil rights lawsuit that he was retaliated against for refusing to pay union dues, the union paid only $500, which it calls "a nuisance value."

WHO PAID WHAT

PLAINTIFF: Joseph Mercer, a former state police sergeant who

is now retired.

CLAIM: That state officials and the Connecticut State Police Union violated his constitutional right to free association by retaliating against him for refusing to pay union dues.

PAYMENTS: $260,000 from state; $500 from union.

That information comes from a detailed rebuttal by the Connecticut State Police Union to a statement by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation about the recent settlement of Joseph Mercer's lawsuit.

Richard Funaro, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office, confirmed that the state paid $260,000 of the settlement and the union $500.

Mercer claimed in the suit that he was retaliated against by being removed from "a prestigious operations sergeant position" after exercising his constitutional right to "abstain" from union membership and "not pay dues to support the union's political activities," the right to work foundation said in its statement.

The foundation blamed the retaliation both on Dora Schriro, who was then the commissioner of the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, which includes the state police, and on Andrew N. Matthews, who was then the state police union president and is now its executive director.

The union replied that it "has no authority and plays no role in the determination of what position a trooper is assigned."

The union also disputed the right to work foundation's statement that Mercer was demoted, saying he was "simply reassigned" within the state police Emergency Services Unit, "which the employer had the right to do as with any appointed position."

The union said the reassignment occurred after 17 members of the unit brought a "safety concern" about the unit's leadership to the union. The union said it was acting on behalf of those troopers when it "shared their concerns with the commissioner who decided a reassignment was necessary."

The union disputed that Mercer's "union status" was the reason for his reassignment or that Matthews filed grievances with the department because Mercer wasn't a union member.

The union called those claims "blatantly false."

"No grievance was filed having anything to do with Mercer's union membership status," it said, adding that all grievances relating to the Emergency Services Unit were based on the department's selection process in placing troopers in the role of operations sergeant in the unit.

The union added that it filed another grievance after the department placed a union member in Mercer's former position when the department failed to conduct a selection process required by the union contract.

The union also disputed the right to work foundation's claim that the settlement vindicates Mercer's right to free association.

The union said it "will always strongly advocate for the safety of its membership" of more than 900 state troopers.

Aside from confirming the division of the settlement payment between the state and the union, Funaro offered no comment on the state's behalf.

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