A Step Backward
Mandating collective bargaining laws is a bad idea

The approaching turn of the century finds highly informed citizens fueling a high-speed economy in an environment where shifting attitudes and circumstances are enough to make anyone dizzy. Issues that once appeared clear suddenly fuzz out of focus, and sometimes the best approach is to try to hang on until the hubbub subsides.

An example is provided by electronic commerce and taxes. A recent Clinton Administration decision to put a moratorium on assessing state and local sales taxes on Internet transactions seemed tailor-made as a battleground for Main Street merchants. After all, buying tax-free online appears certain to cut into the business of tax-assessing retailers. But just when the fighting forces were gathering, ambivalence emerged on the scene. It seems a growing number of those Main Street businesses have web sites of their own, hoping for some commercial expansion into cyberspace. As a result, the thinking goes, this tax moratorium might not be such a bad thing after all.

The point is, today's realities require a great deal of flexibility in the way we live, work and relate to each other -- both personally and professionally. These realities make it critically important that our citizens and communities have the freedom and leeway to craft local solutions to meet the local challenges of modern life.

An example here is provided by the issue of mandated collective bargaining for public employees. This proposal initially floated in 1998, has resurfaced in Kentucky and is expected to be considered by the 2000 General Assembly. But it was a bad idea two years ago, and it is a bad idea today. Why ?

• Decisions involving labor-management relations are best made at the local level. There are obvious areas, such as civil rights or matters of worker safety, where the state or federal government must impose the same law for everyone. But every aspect of labor/management relationships between local governments and the people who work for them should not be subject to the dictates of a distant government. This is especially true when a state law would establish a centralized bureaucracy to oversee the minutiae of local operations. It also is important to remember that nothing in current law prevents public employees from unionizing. Any local government may already bargain collectively with its employees. It's simply a matter of local choice.
• The modern world of work requires a new way of thinking. Changing from a world of smokestacks to one of knowledge-driven enterprises has redefined the performance standards of the workplace. Teamwork, clearly, is becoming the order of the day. More and more private-sector employees are working side-by-side with their employers -- and in some instances joining them as co-owners. Governments must adapt to the changes occurring in their communities. One-stop shopping for permits or licenses and community policing strategies are just two of the areas where conducting the business of government is evolving to become more responsive to citizen's needs. Again, if collective bargaining is the right thing for a community, it can be implemented -- but only if it meets that community's needs.
• Taxpayers must have a role in deciding how to spend their money. Too often, the public is left out of these conversations. If a community wants to go beyond the floor already established by current law and pay its employees higher wages or improve their working conditions, the people who pay the bills must be engaged in the discussion. This, essentially, is the case today. Voters elect members of a city council to act as a board of directors on behalf of their taxpayer shareholders. It is the voters who decide whether a council member's position on collective bargaining is a political plus or minus.

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