OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford Jill Ackerman, a CSEA labor relations specialist, addresses the Fredonia Village Board on Monday.

Fredonia Village Hall was the scene of a union action Monday evening.

Around 15 members of the Civil Service Employees Association attended the Fredonia Village Board meeting to show support for village employees whom they allege are getting mistreated by village officials. A CSEA labor relations specialist, Jill Ackerman, took to the microphone during the meeting to blast the officials over the matter.

“CSEA members are those who maintain the village roads,” she said. “They’re dispatchers, they’re in the water treatment plant, they’re all over, they’re the essential folk that kept this village safe and running over the past year.”

Ackerman added that Fredonia union members opted to forgo a raise and extend a contract last year, in recognition of the village’s pandemic-related challenges.

“I understand the transitions the village is going through and I’ve been pretty patient. I’ll admit that’s wearing pretty thin this evening,” she said. Her role is to work with village officials “to solve matters and create an atmosphere where workers can come to you, they can come and serve the residents. I’m not seeing that.”

Ackerman said she recently set up an appointment with a newly appointed personnel specialist, only to be given many answers of “I don’t know” to her questions. After the labor representative inquired as to whether she was speaking with the right person, “she responded, ‘I’ve been directed not to speak to you,'” Ackerman said.

“My employees, your employees, want to be here to work for the village. They don’t want to be caught up in the games, the aggravation, the frustration amongst the village board,” she added.

Ackerman also alleged that a village clerk, who is also the local CSEA secretary, “has become a toy for the village. She’s being assigned into areas that, frankly, she’s having to find work for.”

In addition, she said a trustee, whom she did not name, sent the clerk harassing messages, including the following: “I’m sorry to hear the employees are upset and sad to go to work. Boo freaking hoo.”

Describing other messages allegedly sent to the clerk, Ackerman said, “In my many years of labor relations, I have never witnessed an elected official putting in writing such contempt for a workforce. And honestly, it amazes me that a trustee chooses to handle himself in this manner.

“We’re not going to take this. The village residents, I’m sure, will not be happy that this is happening,” she concluded. “We are owed respect and the ability to have labor management meetings without being given the runaround. We deserve them to be prompt and in a professional fashion, and to complete our jobs with respect to village residents.”

The CSEA members in the audience — who were supported by former Fredonia Mayor Athanasia Landis — applauded as Ackerman stepped away from the mic.

No village officials addressed Ackerman’s comments at Monday’s meeting. Mayor Doug Essek did not respond to a Tuesday morning email seeking his comments on the matter.