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About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (March 14, 2007)
Page 13 Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, OR Wednesday, March 14, 2007 Bill would again allow public nonstriking workers staffing, safety discussion By SCOTT JORGENSEN IVN Staff Writer Under current Oregon law, public employees pro- hibited from striking cannot include staffing and safety issues under collective bar- gaining agreements. But proposed legislation would change that. Co-sponsored by Sen. Floyd Polanski (D-Eugene) and Sen. Kate Brown (D- Portland), Senate Bill 400 has passed the Senate and is heading for the House, where Democrats hold a narrow majority. Co-sponsor sees level playing field Prozanski said that SB 400 would “re-level the playing field” between un- ionized employees and man- agement during contract negotiations. “We expect, when we have a crisis or an emer- gency, to have a firefighter or a police officer at our doorstep to help us,” Pro- zanski said. “It only seems fair to allow these individu- als to be able to discuss at the bargaining table issues pertaining to their safety and ability to do their job.” SB 400 is facing oppo- sition, primarily from the Association of Oregon Counties (AOC) and League of Oregon Cities (LOC). AOC Policy Consultant Maria Keltner said that the bill may present “roll-up costs hidden to the general public” and passed on to local governments. “This expands the scope of interest arbitration and expands exposure, and I would call it an unfunded mandate,” Keltner said. “It takes more budget control away from local officials.” LOC Interim Legisla- tive Director Steve Bryant said he sees such legislation as being unnecessary. “I don’t think there’s a compelling case of actual evidence to suggest that local governments have been inat- tentive to safety issues being brought to the bargaining table or otherwise,” he said. “In fact, we find ourselves in conversations with local government officials, and safety is really job one. “We’re confused as to why the unions feel they need the ability to make safety issues mandatory and subject to bargaining,” Bry- ant said. Existing Oregon stat- utes pertaining to the ability of nonstrikable workers’ to bargain over safety and staffing issues were estab- lished in 1995 under Senate Bill 750. Prior to that, Pro- zanski said, those issues could be discussed during bargaining. History of situation harkens to 1995 “What happened in 1995 was a reform that re- wrote the collective bargain- ing laws and basically just took away this ability to have those discussed at the bargaining table and made them explicitly permissive,” Prozanski said. “Explicitly permissive” means that such issues can be discussed, but only if management allows it. “If they say ‘no,’ that’s the end of it, period,” Pro- zanski said. “It shifted the balance and allowed the employer to be unilateral in determining whether or not there could be any discus- sion at collective bargaining around safety or staffing issues.” Decisions to be made through arbitrator Under SB 400, if an agreement cannot be reached between manage- ment and union representa- tives regarding staffing and safety issues, an interest arbitrator would be assigned to break the deadlock. “The decision is then to select the management pro- posal, the whole package, or the union proposal of the package,” Keltner said. “That becomes the collec- tive bargaining agreement.” Prozanski said that no part of SB 400 forces coun- ties to incur additional costs. “It doesn’t say one penny has to be paid be- cause of this bill,” he noted. “All it says is they shall be required to discuss, at a bar- gaining table, these issues. Nothing is going to require them to adopt anything that the labor association brings forward.” But Keltner said that the proposed law could have a “broader impact” on how county officials make criti- cal staffing decisions. “In those public safety areas, most anything can be worded in a way that it has a staffing or safety potential impact on workload or safety,” Keltner said. “We see it as really opening up large areas, particularly in staffing areas that have been really the core of manage- ment responsibility and man- agement decision-making.” Prozanski said that the ability of local governments to afford additional employ- ees already is considered under collective bargaining laws, and that none of that would change under SB 400. The public interest cited as paramount “What’s current is, there’s a formula,” Prozan- ski said. “First is what is in the public interest. That’s the top (of the) criteria. If the arbitrator is able to make his or her decision based on that alone, that will be the deciding point. If not, then (there are) another six or seven components they have to consider. Saving family land-based business workshop goal Few challenges faced by family forestland owners, farmers, wine-makers, and other land-based family businesses are more impor- tant than the issue of passing the business and its support- ing land base on to the fol- lowing generation. Many small land own- ers want to preserve their family lands, but don’t know how to involve family members in ownership and operation of their small land-based businesses. A workshop addressing the subject will be held April 16 from 8 a.m. to noon at the Oregon State University Extension Audi- torium in Central Point at 569 Hanley Road. There is a fee which includes refreshments and a copy of the workbook, “Ties to the Land: Your Family Forest Heritage,” a $45 value. For more data, or to register, phone (800) 859- 7609 or 737-3326 or visit familybusinessonline.org/ p r o g r a m s / workshop_calendar.aspx or. For planning purposes, reg- istration is requested by April 12. “One of the most im- portant ones,” he said, “is whether or not the govern- ment unit can even pay for it, or if they have the re- sources to pay for what’s being required and bar- gained for, with the under- standing that the arbitrator shall take into consideration the other obligations of the government unit.” Of primary concern to AOC is the fact that under SB 400, arbitrators would be able to use one contract as a “comparator,” Keltner said. That comparator could then be used as the basis for all future contract negotiations, eventually driving up costs for county and city govern- ments throughout the state. “When the interest arbi- trator puts that language into one contract, that contract then is used as a comparator for other contracts. So it has a ripple effect in terms of that proposal ending up in many other contracts,” Kelt- ner said. “In the past, we’ve seen that with salary increases, comparing one county to a comparator county’s salary, it ratchets up any time there’s an increase, whether an agreement is on the bar- gaining table or the interest arbitrator puts it into the contract.” Long-tern effects said ‘not catastrophic’ Prozanski said that the bill’s long-term effects will not be as catastrophic as its opponents have claimed. “I’ve heard from man- agement that the sky is go- ing to fall and all this stuff,” he said. “The reality is, it didn’t fall prior to 1995 when they had the obliga- tion to bargain a lot of the issues that now would be returned to bargaining. “If it was so bad,” Pro- zanski said, “then why hasn’t management come forward with all these sto- ries pre-1995 showing for a fact that these are detrimen- tal things?” Uncle Billy’s Diner Dinner Specials start 5 p.m. Wed.: Spaghetti $9 95 All-You-Can-Eat Thurs.: Yankee Pot Roast $7 95 Fri.: Kahlua Pig $11 95 Sat.: 10 oz. 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