Another from the department of “how is this not already legal?” Representative Mulrooney’s HB96 will require that compensation be a mandatory subject of bargaining for any group of state employees who have joined together for purposes of collective bargaining and certified a labor organization to serve as their exclusive collective bargaining representative.
So, wait a minute, right now the law is that state employees can unionize but their salaries are not required to be a topic of conversation in bargaining sessions with management?
Delaware, we treat our state employees like absolute shit.
UPDATED: 6/8/2017
SPONSORS: Mulrooney, Marshall, Keeley, Mitchell, Osienski, Bentz, Carson, Kowalko, Williams
YES VOTES:
NO VOTES:
HISTORY: Placed in House Appropriations Committee.
STATUS: Waiting for a hearing in committee.
Seriously, how is this not already legal? One of the major reasons to organize in the first place is to negotiate compensation in line with your productivity.
State merit system employees have had the ability to bargain wages since 2007. (19 Del C section 1311A). This bill eliminates existing 12 wage bargaining units.
I don’t see the elimination of any bargaining units in this markup. Point me to where that is, please.
Sure. Title 19, 1311A is the current section of Delaware Code authorizing compensation bargaining for merit employees. 1311A (b) contains authorization for 12 units to bargain for compensation. These units are uniform in that ALL employees of a job classification are in the same unit regardless of what agency they work for. So, for example all nurses are in unit 6, therefore all nurses who work for the state would be included within the same negotiated wage agreement. The bill dissolves these 12 units (by strike through of the entire code section) and basically says that any group of merit employees who organize and are certified, regardless of their job classification can bargain for wages.
OK I sorta see this. So what would be the problem with this arrangement? From here it looks like it provides greater opportunities to organize. It doesn’t dissolve the current certified bargaining units, but does provide an opportunity for some of these units to join forces.
Not saying it’s a good thing or a bad thing. My original intent in responding was just to clarify that merit employees have had the right to bargain wages for several years. (The bills synopsis is not necessarily comprehensive which by the way is not unusual!).
The biggest issue as I see it is that the State will most likely end up having different pay scales for employees in the same job classification doing the exact same work depending upon their union representation. The current 12 units avoids this by keeping all employees of a same classification in the same wage bargaining unit.
I’m a little late to the party on this one, apologies but to clarify, in order for Employees to bargain for wages, there is a long and onerous process which included the minority of unrepresented employees voting to be represented by a union (likely AFSCME, Council 81). So for example in those 12 Bargaining units, Unit 1 is blue collar workers (DelDOT maintenance workers, toll collectors and other labor/trade workers) so for easy math, let’s say there are 2,000 of those workers in Delaware. Of that 2,000 1500 are already represented by union(s). The 500 who are not, have to 1.) want to join a union, 2.) Elect to have a union represent them 3.) then they can go bargain for wages.
Those 1500 unit 1 workers who are already organized in a union CAN NOT bargain for wages right now. But those 500 unrepresented people, they can vote no on any union and deny the majority of represented Unit 1 workers from bargaining.
What HB 96 will do is eliminate the need for the minority to tell the majority they can’t bargain for wages. What it does is allow for those state employees who are already covered by a Collective bargaining Agreement (CBA) to now go to the table and bargain for wages.
We don’t have pay scales in Delaware (except in teacher salaries), so if this bill helps create pay scales at all, is that really a bad thing? Shouldn’t a state worker wake up on their 1, 5, 10 or 20th anniversary with the state knowing hey, I’m getting a bump in salary because I’m a dedicated and loyal worker?
HB 96 is a no brainer. Delaware is one of the only states that does not allow it’s State employees to bargain for wages. But we allow New Castle, Kent, & Sussex Counties to bargain for wages; we allow Dover, Smyrna, City of New Castle and Newark to bargain for wages. We even allow UD and DSU to bargain for wages. But no, not those state employees.
This is a fantastic explanation — thank you so much!