Governors rescind bargaining rights for state employees

Newly inaugurated Republican governors in Indiana and Missouri this month repealed collective bargaining rights for state employees, negating or threatening current contracts for thousands of workers in those states.

In Indiana, Gov. Mitch Daniels on Jan. 11 rescinded the collective bargaining rights and contracts of 23,000 state employees, including 14,000 workers represented by the Unity Team, a joint local of the AFT and the United Auto Workers.

Indiana state employees gained collective bargaining rights in 1989 through an executive order signed by Gov. Evan Bayh. Every governor since then has honored that order, which permits them to negotiate pay, benefits and work rules.

Daniels declined to renew the order, however, and also issued executive orders invalidating existing labor agreements scheduled to run through June 2007.

Gov. Daniels’ action affects some 35,000 executive branch employees, two-thirds of whom are represented by unions.

“This is a dark day for the people of Indiana,” said AFT president Edward J. McElroy. “Collective bargaining is a process that benefits taxpayers as much as it does state employees. It brings with it higher quality services, more efficient government and improved quality of life for all of Indiana’s citizens. Gov. Daniels’ move is a leap in the wrong direction.”

Missouri’s new Republican Gov. Matt Blunt also repealed his predecessor’s executive order granting bargaining rights to state employees. In 2001, Democratic Gov. Bob Holden issued an order giving some Missouri state employees the right to union representation for contract negotiations. Holden’s order was not fully implemented, and if it had remained, it also would have permitted unions to collect fair share fees from workers they represented.

About 9,000 state employees in Missouri are represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Service Employees International Union. While the unions can still represent employees, there is no guaranteed collective bargaining process, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Union negotiators share experiences, gain insight

More than 120 negotiators and staff representing all AFT constituency groups met in early December for a three-day conference on bargaining contracts.

Held at the Robert M. Healey Center at the Illinois Federation of Teachers, the workshops and presentations focused on the craft of negotiations and strategies for bargaining issues such as health insurance, performance pay, seniority and privatization.

AFT president Edward J. McElroy addressed participants, assuring them that they can count on AFT support when they go to the bargaining table. Preserving healthcare benefits, good salaries—and even the fundamental right to bargain—depends to a large degree on unions’ ability to safeguard collective bargaining rights won through often hard-fought political battles, said McElroy.

G. Richard Shell, a professor in the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and director of Wharton’s Executive Negotiation Workshop, opened the conference with a presentation based on his book, Bargaining for Advantage. Shell helped participants assess their bargaining styles, and provided techniques and strategies to use at the bargaining table.

In planning the bargaining conference, Lynne Mingarelli from the AFT Center for Collective Bargaining worked closely with liaisons from the AFT’s constituency divisions as well as AFT staff. In addition, an advisory group of veteran negotiators provided ideas and suggestions. Bargaining issues unique to the various AFT constituencies were addressed by providing opportunities for negotiators to meet with liaisons from the AFT’s public employee, healthcare, higher education and PSRP divisions.