Arlington, MA- School custodians in Arlington, MA are now guaranteed exclusive access to overtime shifts thanks to a recent arbitration win by the Council 93 legal team.

The February 14th decision by arbitrator Nancy Peace, ensures that the members of Local 680 will no longer be pushed further down the overtime rotation list by supervisors who have been wrongfully grabbing the valuable extra pay from union members since the year 2000.

Through the hard work and quality representation of their union, only Local 680 members will have access to overtime shifts going forward."Given that the collective bargaining agreement is a contract between the town and AFSCME Local 680, and that AFSCME is recognized as the exclusive representative of the custodians but not their supervisors, the overtime distribution provision must be read as a benefit applying only to AFSCME members and not to supervisors of custodians," the arbitrator wrote in her decision. "By allowing the supervisors to participate equally with the custodians on the overtime list, the town is improperly reducing the value of the overtime benefit for which the union has successfully negotiated."

The case started with a January 2014 class action grievance filed on behalf of the custodians. Local 680 President Mark Murphy lauded the cooperative effort and staying power of the Council and his union. "It was a long hard battle but Local 680 and Council 93 never quit," said Murphy.