Why do city unions continue to settle for meet and confer when they have a constitutional right that would lead to a binding master agreement? Anyone who is confused should go to: http://www.moga.mo.gov/const/a01029.htm.
By ANDREW DENNEY
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Columbia Tribune
Public-sector unions representing city employees are continuing to work through the "meet-and-confer" process to secure better working conditions for the employees they represent as the Columbia City Council begins talks on the fiscal year 2013 budget.
Unions representing city police officers and electrical workers met with the council last week to present their proposals. The Columbia Fraternal Order of Police is keeping its demands small: Members are asking for a parking space in the city parking garage at Fifth and Walnut streets that could be used to reward officers for exceptional performance on the job.
"It's a very low-cost way to boost morale in the department," Columbia Fraternal Order of Police Executive Director Ashley Cuttle told the council on May 21.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2 — which has been designated as the bargaining unit for the city's electrical workers but has no dues-paying workers in Columbia — is asking for the city to allow the union to begin a "fair share" program in which electric workers who do not pay dues to the union have a portion of their paychecks withheld by the city and that withholding is paid to the union.
David Desmond, a business manager for Local 2, said the proposal would ensure that the union would be properly reimbursed for its representation of Columbia Water and Light Department employees.
"We feel that if they're going to get the benefits of all these services, they need to pay their fair share," Desmond said in an interview. According to a Local 2 staffer, 71 of 104 Water and Light employees voted in favor of establishing a fair share system. Desmond said if a fair share system is established, non-dues-paying employees would be able to apply to have a reimbursement of their fair share dollars that the union spent on political campaigns.
At the meeting with the council, Fourth Ward Councilman Daryl Dudley asked if the fair share system amounts to a "closed shop" for city workers. Desmond said it would be considered a closed shop if the city had to hire workers exclusively through the union.
Columbia Professional Firefighters is asking for the city to allow firefighters to see their scores on the written portion of the Columbia Fire Department's promotions exam. Brad Fraizer, president of Columbia Professional Firefighters, said allowing firefighters to see their written test scores would allow them expanded opportunities to rise up through the ranks.
The city has been receptive to the firefighters' proposal, and Margrace Buckler, director of the city's Human Resources Department, said the city staff is in the process of writing up a proposed ordinance to the council to allow firefighters to see the written test scores. Buckler said preventing the disclosure of the test scores has been "past practice" for the city.
On June 8 and 9, the council will hold its annual retreat at the Activity & Recreation Center, 1701 W. Ash St. The city manager's office typically releases a proposed budget in the weeks after the council's retreat. The new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
Reach Andrew Denney at 573-815-1719 or e-mail akdenney@columbiatribune.com.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Monday, May 28, 2012
ALEC Continues to Lose Members
Amazon.com Becomes The Eighteenth Group To Drop ALEC
Think Progress
By Ian Millhiser on May 24, 2012 at 1:13 pm
According to an email ThinkProgress received from the Center for Media and Democracy, one of the leaders of a progressive campaign to push corporations and other funders to break with the American Legislative Exchange Council, online retail giant Amazon.com just announced that it will part ways with ALEC. In the wake of this campaign, ALEC eliminated a task force that pushed voter suppression laws and the so-called “Stand Your Ground” laws that played a significant role in the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin shooting, but the conservative group remains committed to other priorities such as repealing minimum wage laws, eliminating capital gains and estate taxes, and blocking safeguards that protect children from eating rat poison.
Other groups that have dropped ALEC include: Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Kraft, Wendy’s, Mars, Inc., Arizona Public Service, the National Board for Professional Teaching StandardsScantron, The National Association of Charter School Authorizers, Kaplan, Procter & Gamble, Yum! Brands, five Pennsylvania legislators, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Reed Elsevier, American Traffic Solutions, Intuit, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/24/489934/amazoncom-becomes-the-eighteenth-group-to-drop-alec/
Think Progress
By Ian Millhiser on May 24, 2012 at 1:13 pm
According to an email ThinkProgress received from the Center for Media and Democracy, one of the leaders of a progressive campaign to push corporations and other funders to break with the American Legislative Exchange Council, online retail giant Amazon.com just announced that it will part ways with ALEC. In the wake of this campaign, ALEC eliminated a task force that pushed voter suppression laws and the so-called “Stand Your Ground” laws that played a significant role in the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin shooting, but the conservative group remains committed to other priorities such as repealing minimum wage laws, eliminating capital gains and estate taxes, and blocking safeguards that protect children from eating rat poison.
Other groups that have dropped ALEC include: Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Kraft, Wendy’s, Mars, Inc., Arizona Public Service, the National Board for Professional Teaching StandardsScantron, The National Association of Charter School Authorizers, Kaplan, Procter & Gamble, Yum! Brands, five Pennsylvania legislators, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Reed Elsevier, American Traffic Solutions, Intuit, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/24/489934/amazoncom-becomes-the-eighteenth-group-to-drop-alec/
Romney Campaign NLRBgate: One Down, More to Go?
The Romney Campaign has a Labor Policy Advisory Group? This can't be good for working people.
Sunday May 27, 2012
End of a Scandal? NLRB Member Terence Flynn Resigns; Prosecution Still Possible
Sunday May 27, 2012
End of a Scandal? NLRB Member Terence Flynn Resigns; Prosecution Still Possible
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Amid accusations that he broke the law by leaking
information to then-top Romney adviser Peter Schaumber, embattled GOP
National Labor Relations Board member Terence Flynn resigned Saturday
evening. The NRLB's Inspector General (IG) had been investigating Flynn
for leaking confidential pre-trial information to top Romney advisors
and for allegedly drafting op-eds and preparing Schaumber, who was
Romney's labor policy advisor, for television appearances and debates.
Flynn has denied any wrongdoing. The leaks allegedly occurred last
year, before Flynn was appointed to the NLRB in January by President
Obama, when Flynn was working as a lawyer for the federal agency, which
mediates labor disputes.
The IG alleged that
Flynn may have violated the Hatch Act by providing “non-public
deliberative information and other assistance to Peter Schaumber, a
co-chair of the Labor Policy Advisory Group for the Mitt Romney
Presidential campaign.” The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from
using their official power to influence the results of an
election. (Since the NLRB IG's report was released earlier this year,
the Romney campaign has said Schaumber left the campaign in December
2011, but serious questions about the validity of that story remain unanswered.)
Recently, Congressman George Miller (D-Calif.) and Congressman Elijah
Cummings referred the matter for prosecution by the Office of Special
Counsel. (The Office of Special Counsel will not comment on whether it
will prosecute Flynn.) House Education, Labor and Pension Chairman
Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) also recently threatened to hold hearings on
the matter.
As I reported in late March, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called on
Flynn to resign after the release of the first of two NLRB IG reports
showing Flynn had provided confidential information to the Romney
campaign and helped Schaumber craft attacks on the NLRB. Trumka said
that “The report makes clear that Schaumber used his inside connections
through his former chief counsel Flynn to get internal, confidential
information that he then utilized in ongoing public attacks on the
actions of the NLRB. These unethical practices are unprecedented and
indefensible.”
A second report by the IG on why Flynn leaked information to Schaumber
concluded that Flynn did so in exchange for Schaumber's efforts to
secure Flynn's appointment to the NLRB. NLRB IG Dave Berry wrote, “The
situation gives rise to the appearance that Mr. Flynn’s disclosure of
deliberative information and assistance to former Member Schaumber was
in return for former Member Schaumber’s lobbying on behalf of Mr.
Flynn’s nomination.”
After the release of that report, NLRB Chairman Mark Pearce said, “We
take the findings in these reports very seriously. They raise questions
of ethics and trust that go to the heart of the values shared by all of
us at the NLRB. Those concerns are paramount in our minds as we
consider the necessary response.”
In a prepared statement, Barry Coburn, a lawyer for Terence Flynn, said
Flynn’s "contacts with Mr. Schaumber, his friend and former colleague,
were not illegal in any respect." Coburn said that
Flynn "does not deserve to be publicly smeared," and said that
"circumstances are precisely what deter people like Mr. Flynn from
government service."
It is unclear if Flynn’s resignation will affect any potential criminal
investigations launched by the Office of Special Counsel or any future
hearings threatened by Harkin. Pearce said he intends to issue a
statement on the matter this week.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Don't miss the meeting tonight, Monday May 14 starting at 6 pm in Columbia at the Labor Temple.
At this meeting we have several candidates scheduled to meet with us:
6:00 pm Mary Still - State Senate 19th District
6:15 pm Ken Jacob - State Representative 44th District
6:30 pm Nancy Copenhaver - State Representative 47th District
6:45 pm Jason Wright - State Representative 47th District
Friday, May 4, 2012
Columbia Teachers to Vote on Representation
Here's the KOMU link: http://www.komu.com/news/columbia-teachers-to-vote-on-representation/
Education group submits petition for exclusive representation
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2012/05/03/cmnea-submits-petition-elect-teacher-representative/
Columbia Missourian
Thursday, May 3, 2012 | 3:44 p.m. CDT; updated 3:53 p.m. CDT, Thursday, May 3, 2012
BY ABIGAIL GEIGER
COLUMBIA — Columbia teachers will likely vote in the fall on a proposal to elect a teacher group to collectively bargain with the district, Columbia Public Schools Superintendent Chris Belcher said.
The Columbia Missouri National Education Association, one teacher group in Columbia, submitted an election petition Friday to the district to further a collective bargaining policy approved in January.
CMNEA's submission sets the foundation for other labor unions and associations to have a more active role in the district’s dialogue with teachers. Other teacher groups have at least 20 days to send their submissions to the district to be considered for the election.
A school board notice said that the deadline for teacher groups to send in submissions is 4:30 p.m. on June 1.
Belcher said once this time period has passed, the submissions will be reviewed for completion by a "designated person" who is not part of a teacher group or the district. Then, the school board will set a date to review them. Belcher said the school board will probably see the submissions this summer.
The vote:
If the petition is approved, the vote would occur in the fall. District spokeswoman Michelle Baumstark said the district is still in the process of defining whether teachers will be the only employees eligible to vote.
Teachers would have the option to vote for a group to be exclusive representatives or to maintain the current “meet and confer” system, which is a less formal communication between teacher groups and the district. Either option needs to receive 50 percent, or a simple majority, to win.
Policy change sparks idea for exclusive representation
In January, the issue of collective bargaining was put at the forefront of teacher and district discussions when the school board passed two policies, HA and HH.
Baumstark said these policies work as guidelines for how the district approaches the collective bargaining process. She said the district uses policy HA as a guideline for the "meet and confer" system.
Policy HH proposes to use one teacher group, such as CMNEA, as an "exclusive representative" for the teachers to address salaries, benefits and other conditions of employment with the district.
Belcher and Baumstark said policy HH comes in response to a 2007 Missouri Supreme Court decision that made collective bargaining legal for teachers and other public employees. Old labor precedents set in the 1940s did not include teachers and applied collective bargaining only to private sector workers.
Baumstark said that once the court made its decision, Missouri school districts expected the state legislature to create a law defining how teachers would be represented for collective bargaining. No such law was proposed, so districts took the issue into their own hands and created their own policies.
Helping to 'keep the conversation flowing'
CMNEA president Susan McClintic said elections for exclusive representation for teachers are difficult because there is no official law that defines the process. She said groups such as CMNEA serve as a way to determine the district's and the teachers' responsibilities. They are there to keep the conversation flowing.
"What we think we can bring to the table are discussions that are driven by employees and employers and also have experts at the table," McClintic. "Then you get to have the people that matter at the table, which can essentially create better learning environments for children."
Belcher said he’s concerned policy HH could make collective bargaining and teacher representation in the district too bureaucratic. He said he is afraid that the dialogue between the district and the teachers might not be as inclusive or open with the proposal.
Moreover, he said, the collective bargaining process needs to focus solely on the teachers and what they want.
"This is truly the teachers' decision," Belcher said. "It's not my decision, it's not the board of education's. It's the teachers'."
Columbia Missourian
Thursday, May 3, 2012 | 3:44 p.m. CDT; updated 3:53 p.m. CDT, Thursday, May 3, 2012
BY ABIGAIL GEIGER
COLUMBIA — Columbia teachers will likely vote in the fall on a proposal to elect a teacher group to collectively bargain with the district, Columbia Public Schools Superintendent Chris Belcher said.
The Columbia Missouri National Education Association, one teacher group in Columbia, submitted an election petition Friday to the district to further a collective bargaining policy approved in January.
CMNEA's submission sets the foundation for other labor unions and associations to have a more active role in the district’s dialogue with teachers. Other teacher groups have at least 20 days to send their submissions to the district to be considered for the election.
A school board notice said that the deadline for teacher groups to send in submissions is 4:30 p.m. on June 1.
Belcher said once this time period has passed, the submissions will be reviewed for completion by a "designated person" who is not part of a teacher group or the district. Then, the school board will set a date to review them. Belcher said the school board will probably see the submissions this summer.
The vote:
If the petition is approved, the vote would occur in the fall. District spokeswoman Michelle Baumstark said the district is still in the process of defining whether teachers will be the only employees eligible to vote.
Teachers would have the option to vote for a group to be exclusive representatives or to maintain the current “meet and confer” system, which is a less formal communication between teacher groups and the district. Either option needs to receive 50 percent, or a simple majority, to win.
Policy change sparks idea for exclusive representation
In January, the issue of collective bargaining was put at the forefront of teacher and district discussions when the school board passed two policies, HA and HH.
Baumstark said these policies work as guidelines for how the district approaches the collective bargaining process. She said the district uses policy HA as a guideline for the "meet and confer" system.
Policy HH proposes to use one teacher group, such as CMNEA, as an "exclusive representative" for the teachers to address salaries, benefits and other conditions of employment with the district.
Belcher and Baumstark said policy HH comes in response to a 2007 Missouri Supreme Court decision that made collective bargaining legal for teachers and other public employees. Old labor precedents set in the 1940s did not include teachers and applied collective bargaining only to private sector workers.
Baumstark said that once the court made its decision, Missouri school districts expected the state legislature to create a law defining how teachers would be represented for collective bargaining. No such law was proposed, so districts took the issue into their own hands and created their own policies.
Helping to 'keep the conversation flowing'
CMNEA president Susan McClintic said elections for exclusive representation for teachers are difficult because there is no official law that defines the process. She said groups such as CMNEA serve as a way to determine the district's and the teachers' responsibilities. They are there to keep the conversation flowing.
"What we think we can bring to the table are discussions that are driven by employees and employers and also have experts at the table," McClintic. "Then you get to have the people that matter at the table, which can essentially create better learning environments for children."
Belcher said he’s concerned policy HH could make collective bargaining and teacher representation in the district too bureaucratic. He said he is afraid that the dialogue between the district and the teachers might not be as inclusive or open with the proposal.
Moreover, he said, the collective bargaining process needs to focus solely on the teachers and what they want.
"This is truly the teachers' decision," Belcher said. "It's not my decision, it's not the board of education's. It's the teachers'."
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