Collective Bargaining
Recently, the concept of public employees' "collective bargaining rights" have been in the media. Most people don't have a clear understanding of what "collective bargaining" actually means, what it can and cannot do, and what the actual consequences of the collective bargaining laws are, for both employees and employers. We hope that by providing the following information, you can make a more informed decision as to where you stand on the issue.
THE MMBA
The Collective Bargaining laws for municipal employees are found in the Meyers, Milias, Brown Act or the MMBA. In the late '60s then Governor Reagan enacted these laws. About 10 years later, then Governor Brown (his earlier stint in the office) added to Collective Bargaining laws, which have enjoyed bi-partisan support for many decades.
Claim: ELIMINATE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING LAWS AND EMPLOYEE WAGES WILL DECREASE.
A little realized fact is that the highest paid City employees, the Executive Staff, are not subject to Collective Bargaining laws. They interact directly with S.B. Council. Executive Staff salaries were a key focus of a recent Grand Jury analysis. The non-Collective Bargaining process, by which the Executive Staff obtains their raises, is a model of how all of the employees could interact with Council regarding pay and benefit issues should the Collective Bargaining laws be eliminated.
False
Claim: BECAUSE OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING, PUBLIC EMPLOYERS HAVE NO CONTROL OVER THE EMPLOYEES
False
The MMBA accords S.B. City elected leaders with a mechanism whereby City Administration acts as a buffer and deals directly with the employees about employee contracts. The contracts delineate pay structures for the employees but they also obligate the employees in various ways such as not participating in job actions against the City. Eliminate the Collective Bargaining laws and you eliminate the organizational structures that are beneficial for the Council and the citizens. Eliminate those structures and the employees can interact directly with Council, argue pay and benefits issues without the buffer of the City Administration, and there will be no obligation for the employees to commit themselves to legally binding contracts.
Claim: DUE TO COLLECTIVE BARGAINING LAWS GOVERNMENTAL EMPLOYERS CAN'T IMPOSE CONTRACTS ON EMPLOYEES.
False
Section 3505.4 of the MMBA provides for the employer the ability to impose contracts on employee groups. Eliminate Collective Bargaining and you eliminate the very law that exists to ensure the employers ability to impose contracts.
Claim: ELIMINATE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AND YOU WILL STOP UNIONS FROM SUPPORTING ELECTED OFFICIALS
False
Regardless of the existence, or discontinuance, of the Collective Bargaining laws, employee groups, whether as individual members or organized groups, can and will continue to donate money to persons running for office. And people running for office, for any and all parties, will continue to elicit campaign donations from employee groups - regardless of Collective Bargaining laws or lack thereof.
Claim: COLLECTIVE BARGAINING MAKES IT SO THE EMPLOYEES FORCE ELECTED OFFICIALS TO GIVE RAISES
False
As previously mentioned, with Collective Bargaining comes the laws that codify the City's ability to impose contracts. Furthermore, the members of the SBPOA recently had to take pay cuts as high as 10%. These cuts were voted in by a Council where the majority of the members had been endorsed by the POA. Collective Bargaining does not grant the employee any power, whatsoever, over the employer to force raises in pay and benefits.
Claim: ELIMINATE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AND PUBLIC EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT CONTRIBUTIONS WILL DROP
False
The current PERS contributions paid by employers are accrued liabilities, in which the employees are vested, which mean that the financial responsibility for payment of the retirement contributions has already been incurred, thus, the contribution rates that will occur during the course of the next several years will occur, at their actuarially determined rates, regardless of the existence of Collective Bargaining.
CONCLUSION
There will always be a need for the services provided by public employees such as those in the POA. Wherever there are employees, public or private, there will always be a need to deal with employee issues, such as pay and benefits, on a regular and on-going basis. The value in Collective Bargaining laws are that they are simply a set of guidelines, or rules, that both employee/employer must following when dealing with employee issues. Eliminate Collective Bargaining and you eliminate the rules, regulations, and guidelines that maintain order in the process of dealing with employee issues. This order protects all parties - employer, employee, and citizens.
