Still a Bad Idea
Mandated collective bargaining is not the way to protect employees

Some ideas are really good. Like the idea to run a key up a kite in a thunderstorm. Like the idea to create a machine that runs on fuel and goes faster than a horse-drawn carriage. Like the idea to speak over a wire to someone who isn't in the same room with you. Or how about the idea to store information in a place it can be retrieved with the click of a button? That was a really good idea.

Then there are bad ideas. Like the idea that the Edsel would revolutionize the auto industry. Or how about the idea to change the traditional formula for Coca-Cola? Well-intentioned ideas, yes, but they just didn't work.

I would have to place mandatory collective bargaining in that well-intentioned, bad idea category. The push in the General Assembly to force cities, counties and local school boards to recognize union representation of public employees is a bad idea.

Those of us opposed to mandatory collective bargaining are being labeled anti-labor. We aren't anti-labor. We're anti-mandate. No one discounts the vital role of the worker in the public sector. From the police officer to the maintenance engineer, employees are the lifeblood of every Kentucky community. Our cities could not operate efficiently without the skills of those administering services at the local level. It is in defense of those workers that we oppose mandated collective bargaining. It is a legitimate, substantiated view that mandated collective bargaining is not the way to take care of workers.

Workers must be protected by policies adopted for equitable treatment of all employees. In some instances those rules must emanate by mandate from the federal and state government. Forced collective bargaining does not fit this category.

Workers must be protected with wage discussions that lead to fair compensation for services, skills and training. Wages that wind up in the pockets of workers, not the pockets of a bureaucratic agency.

We have only to look as far as Ohio for collective bargaining tales of horror. Recent reports there indicate collective bargaining is no bargain at all for workers.

In the public arena, we have to consider some of the other reasons collective bargaining would not be a healthy alliance:

• The devolution of federal funding to the local level has constricted the ability of cities to deliver necessary and expected services. With mandated collective bargaining, cities would be required to pay all costs associated with negotiating collective bargaining contracts with the union, as well as all personnel that administer these contracts. Also included in the costs would be the training time for city employees involved in the processes and negotiations.
• These laws eliminate the local option to recognize unions, thus removing from local citizens and taxpayers the right to take part in such decisions by participation in local council and commission meetings. In schools, it undermines the concept of site-based decision-making. It will wind up increasing local taxes or reducing city services.
• Most cities have comprehensive personnel policies already in place that apply equally to all city personnel. Many city policies contain protections to the worker not always found in collective bargaining agreements. And state law already provides many protective provisions for public employees. What about the Police Officers Bill of Rights? What about the 24-on, 48-off provision for firefighters? What about tenure for teachers?

It's an age-old fight. We simply do not want the financial burden of mandated restrictions to fall on the shoulders of already over-burdened local budgets.

Any way you look at mandatory collective bargaining, its still a bad idea. Sort of like the idea that you could build a ship that was absolutely unsinkable.

Sylvia L. Lovely is executive director of the Kentucky League of Cities

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