Columnist Jeff German: Peace in Justice Court once again

Wednesday, April 28, 2004 | 11:01 a.m.

This wasn't very hard to predict.

In the spirit of Gilda Radner's "Saturday Night Live" character Emily Litella, the clueless news correspondent who shot her mouth off without thinking, Las Vegas justices of the peace have said "never mind" to the harebrained idea of breaking a collective bargaining agreement with about 100 court employees.

After having a week to think about the error of their ways -- and the political pressure they've been receiving -- the judges put the word out Tuesday that they fully intend to honor the labor contract that was struck with Service Employees International Local 1107.

"We have no problem enforcing the collective bargaining agreement," Chief Justice of the Peace Tony Abbatangelo said Tuesday just minutes before heading into a meeting with County Manager Thom Reilly. The meeting was aimed at squelching widespread concerns that the judges had lost their sanity.

The saga of how the eight justices of the peace veered off course in what would turn out to be a bungled power grab was first reported in this space April 20.

The story actually began in March when Abbatangelo and his colleagues signed an order announcing that Justice Court intended to withdraw from an agreement with the county that placed court employees under the county's management. It was part of a move by the judges to gain more control over the hiring and firing of their workers.

All heck broke loose on April 16 when word of the power play reached the employees. Abbatangelo informed the workers in a letter that they now fell under the court's management.

In the letter, Abbatangelo carelessly suggested that the court wasn't obligated to honor the three-year labor contract that SEIU negotiated with the county in 2003.

That, you can imagine, enraged SEIU officials and Reilly, who informed the eight justices that, in America, collective bargaining agreements can't be tossed out like a bag of garbage.

The letter turned into a political mistake of monstrous proportions for not only Abbatangelo, but all of the judges, many of whom are running for re-election this year and looking for organized labor's support. Yeah, that'll happen now.

The first words of reaction out of the mouth of Jane McAlevey, the SEIU's executive director, was, "This is straight union-busting."

From there, Justice Court employees, in what McAlevey described as a "terrific display of unity," made their displeasure crystal clear to the justices of the peace. The workers circulated petitions, handed out leaflets and posted fliers on courthouse bulletin boards, all voicing opposition to the assault on the collective bargaining agreement.

Tempers reached their zenith bright and early Tuesday morning when a group of Justice Court employees approached Abbatangelo on his way into the courthouse and presented him with a petition signed by nearly 90 percent of the workers demanding the judges protect their labor contract.

And guess what?

Abbatangelo and his colleagues listened.

The judges, Abbatangelo said, now plan to sign a new agreement with the county that will keep the court's employees under the county's management and preserve the collective bargaining agreement.

Justice of the Peace Doug Smith, who's running for the Nevada Supreme Court, said the judges "moved quicker than we should have" with the letter.

"We should have thought it out more clearly," he said.

Even Abbatangelo acknowledged that the game plan wasn't well conceived.

"We could have been more tactful and politically savvy in getting our point across," he said.

And maybe we'd be talking today about the need to give the justices of peace more autonomy at the courthouse instead of the need to teach them how to treat their employees with respect.