Local Government in Connecticut, Third Edition

7. Municipal Employees and Unionization

ChApTEr 7 Municipal Employees and Unionization The history of collective bargaining and the unionization of public workers is essentially a twentieth-century development. The transition of the nation’s economy from agriculture to industry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries produced an environment conducive to the rise of workers’ rights and collective bargaining in the private sector. Private sector unionization reached its apex in the years during and immediately after World War II with 33.9 percent of the private sector workforce belonging to a collective bargaining unit. In 2009 this had declined to 7.2 percent, reflecting the transition from the manufacturing-based economy of the mid-twentieth century to a service- and information-technology-based economy of the twenty-first century During the same time period, however, the unionization of public sector workers increased from 9.8 percent to 36 percent of the public sector workforce . The advance of public sector unionization was slow and corresponded with the transition in government from patronage-based personnel decisions to merit-based personnel systems along with a corresponding lessening of legal restrictions that affected bargaining rights at all levels of government. President Kennedy in 1962 relaxed restrictions at the federal level. In 1978, laws were passed at the federal level that provided bargaining rights to federal employees. State and local government followed the federal lead of lessening restrictions, and the growth in public sector unionization since World War II reflects this lessening of restrictions. Today thirty-seven states have now passed laws authorizing some form of collective bargaining with their employees. The following outline discusses the three major pieces of legislation affecting public employees and their employers in Connecticut. These are the Municipal Employee Relations Act (MERA), the Teacher Negotiation Act (TNA), and the State Employee Relations Act (SERA) as well as the 46 Local Government in Connecticut two major bodies responsible for the administration and enforcement of these acts, the Connecticut State Board of Labor Relations (CSBLR), and the Connecticut State Board of Mediation and Arbitration. All three pieces of legislation, with some differences, and subsequent amendments, reflect Connecticut’s response to the nationwide trend of unionization in the public sector workplace during the latter part of the twentieth century. The State of Connecticut’s Department of Labor is responsible for the administration, adjudication, and enforcement of labor relations in Connecticut . This labor-relations mission of the Department of Labor is broad, but decentralized. In most cases the administration of local labor contracts in the public sector is left to the individual bargaining units and the employing municipality under current law and regulation, or in the case of SERA, to the state itself. The state, through the Department of Labor, is, however, almost always the final arbiter of impasses between the employer and employee or union. To ensure an objective venue for deciding impasse issues, the state established the Connecticut State Board of Labor Relations, and the Connecticut State Board of Mediation and Arbitration. Connecticut State Board of Labor Relations (CSBLR) The State Board of Labor Relations is a quasi-judicial agency whose staff investigates all petitions and complaints, holds informal conferences with the parties, and attempts to mediate settlements. By this process, most disputed questions or entire cases are settled. Determinations are then made as to which cases should be presented to the labor board. The board conducts hearings and issues decisions. It also defines and protects the statutory rights of public sector (and in some cases private sector) employees to form, join, or assist labor organizations. It encourages and protects the right of employees and employers to bargain collectively. The board administers the major portion of the MERA, TNA, and SERA. Under these acts the board is empowered to decide prohibited-practice complaints and representation issues. It also has the power to promulgate regulations, decide the scope of bargaining issues, and issue declaratory rulings. The board consists of three regular members and any number of alternate members. The regular members are appointed by the governor for four-year terms coterminous with the governor’s term. The members are not separately designated as “neutral,” “management,” and “labor” members, unlike the members of the State Board of Mediation and Arbitration. Municipal Employees and Unionization 47 Connecticut State Board of Mediation and Arbitration The State Board of Mediation and Arbitration provides mediation and arbitration services to employers, as well as employee organizations designated to represent employees, in...