18

LIGHT SNOW WAS FALLING, slowing down the evening’s rush hour traffic even more than usual. George Ryder had the radio of his ’88 Ford station wagon tuned to a sports talk show, but wasn’t aware of much that was being said. He was pleased with the fact that for the second consecutive day he was able to bill out a full eight hours, and was thinking about all the potential work ahead of him in negotiating the new Ocean State Wire & Cable contract. Maybe things were beginning to turn around, he told himself.

Ryder and Brad Hanley were together all afternoon. They met for lunch at a small Italian restaurant called Abruzzi’s, just a block away from the plant, where both ordered the super calzones baked by the owner. Afterwards, they went to discuss strategy for the negotiations with the Machinists Union. Hanley led Ryder to the conference room located a floor above Ocean State’s main office area. The space was used for storage before Hanley came to the Company, but he had it remodeled when the plant showed its first profit under his stewardship. It was a place where he could be certain no one overheard his conversation. In his office the previous day, Ryder reviewed his notes from the contract talks that took place three years earlier. In those negotiations the Machinists Union represented the production employees for the first time. He studied the papers carefully and made a list of everything he wanted to share and discuss with Hanley the next day.

The settlement with the Union hurt the Company badly. From a financial point of view it was disastrous, especially since the decreasing demand for Ocean State’s wire in the recession made it virtually impossible for the Company to even achieve breakeven status.

Hanley went to the Union after the first year of the agreement, looking for any sort of wage concession he could get. He was turned down flat. The negotiating committee listened attentively to every economic argument he made, but taking its cue from Johnny Morelli, the Machinist business agent, it refused to bring Hanley’s proposal to the membership for their consideration and a vote. Countless hours spent on the preparation of detailed graphs and other industry statistics to support his appeal for help were futile, a total waste of time.

The contract settlement also accelerated Hanley’s own loss of face with the employees on the production floor. His rash behavior in trimming their wages and benefits too drastically as soon as they threw out the Steelworkers Union caused them to get back at him the only way they could—by voting for representation by another union. Then, when the negotiations reached the critical point, they went eyeball to eyeball with him on the final offers put on the table by each side. With the threat of a strike riding on his next move, Hanley was the one forced to blink. The workforce fittingly took that as a sign of the Company’s weakness and celebrated its own strength. In the ensuing three years, whenever they thought that management was violating either the explicit or implicit meaning of any of the forty-seven articles of the labor agreement, they didn’t hesitate to file grievance after grievance to retain what they had won.

Ryder knew that he and Hanley had a lot of ground to cover that afternoon. His goal was to find out what Ocean State’s president hoped to achieve in the upcoming contract. To try and get a good handle on the Company’s economic situation, he looked at a series of profit and loss statements Hanley gave him and reviewed the amount of wire tonnage shipped to Ocean State’s twenty largest customers in the past year.

Ryder understood that Hanley’s emotional involvement weakened his client’s position at the bargaining table. His proposals in search of relief came off sounding more like pleas for mercy than realistic presentations meriting the other side’s deliberation. Ryder realized that the burden of trying to soften up the Union negotiating committee at the opening session would be his, not Hanley’s. It was important to put together the best statistics available for making a strong initial presentation to the committee. He had to find the right data from Ocean State’s recent three-year history that everyone could comprehend and discuss in a rational manner. The most telling set of facts was needed to convince the employees that costs had to be held in check in order for Ocean State to be able to compete with other wire plants while it waited for the recession to end.

By 5:30 that afternoon Ryder had organized a lot of the information given to him, but wasn’t ready to discuss any of the details with his client. He wanted to spend the next day in his office reviewing the material—a good start toward another full billing day—and drafting an opening statement to guide him when he addressed the Union at the first meeting. It was already scheduled to take place in two weeks. The statement would be supplemented with the best exhibits he could put together from all the economic information given him by Hanley. He’d have to look confident in his position when the time came to hand out copies of the Company’s proposals to John Morelli and all six of the employees on his committee. If nothing else, Ocean State had to be seen as being completely credible in its presentation. If not, whatever proposals it submitted during the negotiations wouldn’t stand a chance.

Ryder intended to begin pressing Hanley about his position on taking an employee strike this time around, if necessary. He had no idea whether the Tarantinos would have any input in the discussions or whether the direction on any crucial decisions would be coming from the Platt brothers, still the Company’s majority owners. He remembered that neither he nor Hanley knew for certain who called the final shots three years earlier. Whenever Ryder thought about that fiasco, he suspected that Doug Fiore encouraged the Tarantinos to deliver a “no strike” ultimatum to Hanley for purely selfish reasons. He was certain Fiore didn’t want to risk losing a client over a strike, whether it was the right strategy for the Company or not. Speaking to Fiore might get him the answer he was looking for, but it might also lead to embarrassing questions about Ryder’s billable hours. Better stay away from him for now, he decided.

The meeting with Hanley ended abruptly, however, before Ryder could raise the subject of a strike. Brad suddenly informed him that he had to attend to a few matters with the second shift and that he had a prior engagement that evening. They arranged to meet again the following Monday.

“I’ve done one smart thing you’ll be happy about, George,” Brad told him. “We’re renting a small suite at the Biltmore on a monthly basis. It’s to make sure we have a nice place to meet with customers whenever they come to Providence. If any of our meetings with the Union run late, you’ll probably be able to sleep there instead of having to drive home. If you want, you can leave a change of clothes and a toilet kit in the room. I’ll get another key made and give it to you when I see you on Monday.”

“Yes,” Ryder said out loud as he turned off Interstate 95 at the West Warwick exit, “there’s going to be a lot of work to do for Ocean State in the next couple of months.” His billable hours would look good on the computer printouts for a change, and the partners could stop thinking of him as a problem with whom the firm had to deal. He figured that would take the pressure off him for a while at least.

Maybe there’d be other work coming in too, he thought. Bob Gorman told him that Fiore seemed receptive about speaking to Paul Castillo. That could mean some arbitration cases or other projects Castillo might give him to handle. Ryder had also discussed his free time with Lynn Benedetto, the marketing director. She was enthusiastic and promised to send out letters on his behalf to all the employer associations and chambers of commerce in the State. The firm would offer his services, at no cost, to speak at their meetings on any subject concerning labor relations.

You never know where you’ll find your next client, he mused, turning off the radio in the Ford. Maybe I can start getting as lucky as that sonofabitch Fiore.