The New Hampshire Liquor Commission is seeking to ban the head of the State Employees Association from all state liquor stores for at least six months, in a further deterioration of relations between the two organizations.
Citing alleged intimidation of employees by union boss Richard Gulla in recent weeks, the commission submitted a grievance on Wednesday under the entitiesโ collective bargaining agreement. In the letter, commission Chairman Joseph Mollica accused Gulla of visiting a liquor store whose manager has criticized union leadership in recent weeks.
The unionโs collective bargaining contract requires that advance notice and permission be given before any liquor store visit by a union head. But Gullaโs appearance came unannounced, and โwas tremendously upsetting and disruptive to store operations,โ Mollica wrote.
The grievance laid out a stark demand: that Gulla agree to stop visiting state liquor outlets for at least six months โto allow for a cooling-off period.โ
In addition, the commission requested that the union stop any action against employees.
โThe SEA shall cease and desist attempts to frighten, intimidate or silence NHLC employees,โ Mollica wrote.
The SEA, meanwhile, has hit back at the claims.
โNeither Rich or the SEA has violated any part of the collective bargaining agreement and we certainly havenโt made admissions to such,โ SEA spokeswoman Melissa Moriarty said Monday.
Gulla was there with SEA Internal Organizer Andy Capen โon a normal worksite visit,โ she added. โWherever we represent workers, itโs standard practice and part of our contractual right for SEA representatives to conduct work visits.โ
According to the SEA, Gulla had been visiting a store on one of those visits on June 19 when the SEA received an email from Jim Richards, the commissionโs administrator of store operations, asking him to stop the activities โin light of the recent issues between the SEA president and the NHLC.โ
In a response letter addressed to state employee relations manager Matthew Newland, the SEA grievance representative Charles McMahon used that email to call the Commissionโs grievance motion overreactionary.
โMr. Newland, no one was being disruptive in the workplace, as I believe you are fully aware,โ McMahon wrote. โSaying that because there is currently some friction between the SEA and the NHLC the mere presence of the SEA President constitutes a disruption is, as Iโm sure you understand, ludicrous.โ
The commissionโs grievance represents the latest front in an increasingly acrimonious feud between the two organizations, set off by the unionโs concerns over bulk liquor sales made to out-of-state purchasers that it says may violate IRS law.
Gulla, a former liquor commission manager himself, has stood at the heart of that conflict. On Feb. 3, the union head escorted Executive Councilor Andru Volinsky through a Keene liquor store location, touring the stockroom and quietly observing an alleged โstructured saleโ โ one in which two purchases are made below the $10,000 IRS reporting limit but taken away in the same vehicle.
That visit prompted a lengthy report by Volinsky urging the attorney general and governor to investigate instances of โbootleggingโ at New Hampshireโs liquor stores, a concern that has plagued the commission for years.
It also led to serious consequences for Garrett Boes, the manager at the Keene store, who the commission says carried out the structured sale in front of Volinsky and Gulla as a demonstration. Boes, who was fired for his actions, is now appealing before the Public Employee Labor Relations Board
In recent months, the SEA has stepped up its pressure on the commission, releasing a web ad and ramping up accusations of malfeasance in mailings to employees. But cracks have emerged in the unionโs support. Some employees have circulated a petition criticizing what they called a heavy-handed approach by Gulla and the association.
In its letter, the commission said Gullaโs visit was targeted toward one manager who had signed that petition. And it accused the SEA of other efforts to win back skeptical employees. On June 18, commission employees who had been critical of the SEA received copies of the Maxwell Daily Reader with handwritten messages from Gulla within the pages, Mollica claimed in his letter.
โIn short, the SEA is now engaging in employee intimidation and fear mongering in an attempt to incite employees,โ the letter reads.
But Moriarty said that the books were handed out to all attendees of the SEAโs council meetings, and that the notes were simple thank you notes to some of the unionโs critics for showing up.
McMahon, meanwhile, called the grievance a โsmoke screen.โ
โThis is just a continuance of the State of New Hampshireโs and the NHLCโs campaign against the SEA and its NHLC members for their assistance in trying to prevent this State from being criminally charged and fined by the Federal Government for illegal procedures being practices and encouraged by some high ranking agents of the NHLC and the State of New Hampshire,โ he wrote.