Process gives public employees input in workplace decisions

FORMER AFT PRESIDENT Albert Shanker used to say that if he could bargain with himself across the table, the contract would have been better. “Unfortunately, when you negotiate, there is someone else on the other side of the table.”

Almost 50 years have passed since collective bargaining in the public sector took center stage in the labor movement. While some public employees across the nation, particularly municipal employees, had collective bargaining rights prior to the 1960s, many labor historians say the school teachers’ fight in New York City fueled public sector organizing at every level of government. Their union was the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), and Shanker was among the lead organizers of the movement.

“The effects of the UFT contract went beyond teachers,” author Richard Kahlenberg writes in Tough Liberal: Albert Shanker and the Battles Over Schools, Unions, Race and Democracy. “Shanker’s role with teachers in New York City was a crucial catalyst in public sector unionism. ... At Shanker’s memorial service, [former Sen. Daniel Patrick] Moynihan said, ‘If ... “an institution is the lengthened shadow of one man,” the public employees [unions] of our nation are singularly the mark of Al Shanker’s inspired life and work.’ ”

In January 1962, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10988 creating a system for union organizing and collective bargaining in the federal government. States used Kennedy’s order as a framework from which they developed their own public employee bargaining laws. The result: Collective bargaining rights vary by state—and locality.

Unlike private sector unionism, which is largely governed by the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, public sector unionism and collective bargaining is a patchwork. The common thread, however, is that collective bargaining, by giving workers representation, puts them on an equal footing with their employer when it comes to workplace decisions.
Collective bargaining “took a whole huge patronage system, a political system which was subject to the powers and the whims [of management] and it brought it out into the open and created ... a system of fairness and of law and of sharing rather than a system of hoarding and special rewards,” Shanker said.

“One of the things that sometimes gets lost is that the union has its interest and management has theirs,” says Greg Georg, president of the Wisconsin Professional Employees Council (WPEC). “Collective bargaining is a give-and-take on both sides. If there is a compromise, it doesn’t mean that the union isn’t doing its job.” The result of the compromise, Georg adds, is an agreement that is enforceable by both parties.

“Legislated labor protections are sometimes considered alternatives to collective bargaining in the workplace, but the fact of the matter is that a top-down strategy of legislating protections may not be influential unless there is also an effective voice and advocate for workers at the workplace—unions,” according an Economic Policy Institute study on how unions help workers. “No institutional factor appears as capable as unions of acting in workers’ interests.”

Do you know your contract?

Joan McCann started working for the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay as a senior accountant in November 2007. It’s her first job in the public sector. It’s also her first unionized job.

“I find it thrilling to have the support of a union backing me,” says McCann. “I worked for smaller companies and they can do anything they want without explanation, without reason.”

McCann, a WPEC member, says she took a rainy Saturday about two months ago to read her contract. Have you read yours?

Your collective bargaining agreement spells out the terms and conditions of employment, your rights on the job, your pay and your benefits. Look at it as an irreplaceable supplement to civil service regulations.

Stephen Fisher, president of the Federation of State, Cultural and Education Professionals (FOSCEP) in Pennsylvania, says members welcomed language on compensatory time for those exempt from overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which FOSCEP negotiators secured in their most recent contract. Fisher, a member of the AFT Public Employees program and policy council, says it was a big issue, particularly among members working for the state Department of Education.

“A lot of our people work with school districts, higher education institutions or parent groups, and much of those activities are done after school hours and on weekends,” says Fisher. “Our argument was that the state doesn’t have enough staff to do all of the things it wants to do; and if the state isn’t going to hire more staff, then it needs to give consideration to the existing staff.”

Overtime also was an issue for Maryland’s Baltimore County Federation of Public Employees (BCFPE) during its recent negotiations. Jim Miller, president of BCFPE, says that securing overtime pay for all bargaining unit members was a significant victory. Prior to the latest contract, overtime was limited to certain pay grades in the pay schedule.

John White, president of the Alaska Public Employees Association’s Supervisory Unit (SU), says the contract provision on “incidental flex time” is popular because it gives salaried supervisors the ability to be out of the office for up to four hours at a stretch without submitting a leave slip. “That piece of language has done more and is used more than anything we have in our contract,” says White.

WPEC’s Georg says the union-negotiated provision giving members the right to use accumulated sick leave to care for a broad category of family members is valued by the membership. WPEC’s contract also includes a “catastrophic leave” provision under which members voluntarily donate vacation time to an ill union member so they can remain in pay status. “That gets used by a small number of people, but they are people who are definitely in need,” says Georg.

Issue number one: pay

In survey after survey, members say their priority issue at the bargaining table is pay. It’s no wonder. The salaries of most state-employed professionals trail those of their private sector peers.

The private sector-public sector salary gap is narrower, however, in states where public employees have collective bargaining.

“Without collective bargaining, we would continue to get substandard, sub-consumer-price-index raises,” says Alaska’s John White. He says the conservative state leadership “would rather spend the money on capital projects than on the workers. So without us having the ability to speak up, we would lose ground.”

It took 18 months for the Alaska Public Employees Association’s SU to reach its latest contract with the state. Under that agreement, SU-represented employees got a 5.5 percent increase retroactive to July 1, 2007;  they will get 3 percent increases effective July 1 of 2008 and 2009.

“This negotiation was as tough as any we’ve had, even though the state has flush finances,” says White. “We had to fight for every penny.”

“Pay is always the top priority” among Greg Georg’s members in Wisconsin. Georg says the local ran into problems during negotiations over the 2007-09 contract because the state budget “started to go south.” As a result, the state was willing to provide higher pay increases to employees in classifications where the state is having difficulty hiring and retaining workers.

“The average increase for the bargaining unit for the two years is 7.72 percent,” says Georg, noting that increases for some classifications are in the 10 percent range, while roughly one-quarter of the bargaining unit will see increases of about 5 percent over the two years.

Wisconsin isn’t the only place where government budgets are coming up short and, as a result, so are pay increases, other benefits such as healthcare, and public services. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities recently reported that at least 28 states and the District of Columbia are projecting budget deficits for fiscal year 2009. The combined deficits are expected to be upward of $40 billion.

In Baltimore County, the County Council “has taken a hard stance that they don’t have any money, therefore, no across-the-board raises, no upgrades,” says BCFPE president Jim Miller, referring to the local’s newest one-year contract. Miller notes that the county did agree, however, to pick up the inflationary cost of employees’ healthcare premiums, meaning this year’s 1 percent increase in the employee’s share will be based on last year’s premiums.

“I would hate to see us without union representation and bargaining,” says Miller, noting that county workers need and deserve respect for their contributions to the community. “We will continue the fight every year for fair and decent wage increases.”

Collective bargaining reality check

Collective bargaining puts employees at the table on an equal basis with the employer. It is the only mechanism that can bring wage and benefit increases over an extended period of time.

Likewise, engagement in the political and legislative processes is essential among public sector professionals because decisions about our jobs—funding levels, program priorities, wages and benefits—are determined by elected officials in politically charged environments. Because taxes and fees fund government, the AFT also continues to promote sound, progressive tax policy that would produce predictable revenue streams that won’t go dry when there’s an economic downturn.

Through legislative and political action, members secure better contracts and legislation that recognize the value of public services and the contributions of government employees.
Wisconsin’s Joan McCann may be new to public service but she already understands that dynamic. Looking ahead, McCann expects the state budget to be a factor in the next contract WPEC negotiates. “We’ll see if I made the right move.”