The sharp rise in public union membership in the 1960s and 1970s coincides with the movement to give public unions collective bargaining rights. Wisconsin was the first state to provide those rights in 1959, other states followed, and California became the biggest convert in 1978 under Jerry Brown in his first stint as Governor. (A Union Education, Wall Street Journal On-line.)It’s true that during his first two terms as Governor (1975-1983), Jerry Brown signed the Educational Employment Relations Act of 1976 giving collective bargaining rights to schools and community college employees, the State Employer-Employee Relations Act of 1978 (now called the Dills Act) giving collective bargaining rights to state employees, and the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act of 1979, giving collective bargaining rights to higher education employees.
(1) Granting public safety officers the right to form and join a labor organization, which may exclude management employees, supervisory employees, and confidential employees, that is, or seeks to be, recognized as the exclusive bargaining representative of such employees.In California, state law (EERA, HEERA, MMBA, and the Dills Act) already provides all of these rights to public safety employees with one possible exception. Under S. 1394, a state would have to make available “an interest impasse resolution mechanism, such as fact-finding, mediation, arbitration, or comparable procedures.” I'm not sure what this means. The term “interest” when used with “arbitration” has a very distinct meaning in labor relations. In California, there is a statute providing for interest arbitration for police and firefighters. (See CCP, §1299.) However, that statute has been found unconstitutional by the courts and never enforced. So would S. 3194 require interest arbitration? It’s not clear. What’s confusing is that S. 3194 also allows for “fact-finding” and “mediation.” However, there really is no such thing as “interest fact-finding” or “interest mediation” in the labor relations world. So it's really not clear from the statute what meaning is attached to the term "interest." The fear would be that because of the ambiguity, the FLRA might promulgate regulations interpreting S. 3194 as requiring some form of interest arbitration. If so, that would definitely be a change for California public employers.
(2) Requiring public safety employers to recognize the employees' labor organization (freely chosen by a majority of the employees), to agree to bargain with the labor organization, and to commit any agreements to writing in a contract or memorandum of understanding.
(3) Providing for the right to bargain over hours, wages, and terms and conditions of employment.
(4) Making available an interest impasse resolution mechanism, such as fact-finding, mediation, arbitration, or comparable procedures.
(5) Requiring enforcement of all rights, responsibilities, and protections provided by State law and enumerated in this section, and of any written contract or memorandum of understanding between a labor organization and a public safety employer, through--
(A) a State administrative agency, if the State so chooses; and
(B) at the election of an aggrieved party, the State courts.
I’ve been following with interest a battle over a minimum staffing initiative in the City of Alameda (City). In January of this year, the City began engine company “brownouts” because of the budget crisis. In response, the firefighters’ union began circulating a petition for a local ballot measure that would mandate a minimum staffing level of 27 firefighters per shift. At the time, the City had 24 firefighters per shift.
In March, while the petition was still circulating, the City took the unusual step of filing a lawsuit against the measure’s backers. The City argued that the measure constituted “an improper exercise of the initiative power pursuant to Article II, Section 8, of the California Constitution and the City Charter” and requested that the court relieve the City Clerk from having to validate and tabulate any signatures that were gathered. While the lawsuit was still pending, the firefighters were able to gather signatures from about 25% of the electorate by June, more than enough to qualify the measure. The City then had no choice but to schedule the measure for a vote.
According to news articles, the big debate was whether the measure should be put on the ballot in November 2009, at a substantial cost to the City since it would be a stand alone matter on the ballot, or some later time. At its August 3, 2009 meeting, the City Council voted to put the measure on the ballot in November 2011—the latest it could do so. The City Council also voted to drop its lawsuit.
At first blush, it seems like a clever move by the City Council—talk about putting a measure on ice! However, if the economy improves substantially by November 2011, it might actually be harder to defeat the measure. Everyone knows that the public likes to support public safety and if there is plenty of money, people are going to be inclined to vote for anything that makes them feel safer. Had the measure been put on the ballot this year or even June 2010, given the current economic climate, the additional cost to the City from the minimum staffing measure (estimated at $4 million/year by City staff) measure might have doomed it.
Sacramento County Measure A passed on Tuesday with 52% of the vote. Measure A added additional law enforcement employees to those covered by the County’s binding interest arbitration provision. Because Sacramento County already had binding interest arbitration for deputy sheriffs, Measure A did not add another public entity to the list of those with binding arbitration. As it stands today, there are 24 charter cities/counties in California with some form of binding interest arbitration. They are:
