Whatever happens, layoff threats put credibility on line

We'll know soon if public employee unions are playing chicken with the lives of hundreds of their members, or if managers for the Clark County School District and North Las Vegas have been playing a game of brinkmanship.

Either way, one side will lose credibility; the other will gain it.

I tend to believe hundreds of jobs are endangered because the unions believe management is lying about money not being available. If I'm wrong, then the managers who have been insisting large layoffs loom will lose credibility.

The leading examples of "Whom do you believe?" are the Clark County School District and North Las Vegas, which both have announced layoffs.

The school district said there will be 1,015 positions eliminated. However, there's a big difference between cutting positions and actually laying people off.

The school district may lose hundreds from retirements or resignations, so the actual number of people who find themselves jobless for the next school year remains uncertain. But say it's 500 people. Most of those 500 will be the newest hires. Some could be the best and the brightest since, in unions, seniority rules.

Maybe the Clark County Education Association is right and Superintendant Dwight Jones has a secret stash of money to whip out at the last minute to save the day (and the jobs). More likely, he's shrugging and thinking, "OK, if that's how you want it, that's how you'll get it."

Meanwhile, the situation is equally dire in North Las Vegas, which is on the brink of having its budget taken over by the state if the city can't right itself.

North Las Vegas has created many of its own problems by overspending. The recession officially began in December 2007, but North Las Vegas officials forged ahead with a $240 million wastewater plant and $127 million City Hall, ignoring warning signs.

I suspect new City Manager Tim Hacker also is willing to play hardball with unions that charge the city is playing shell games with its finances.

Hacker insists 217 police, fire and Teamster positions are on the chopping block if the public safety unions don't accept a two-year pay freeze and a stay on uniform allowances, and refuse to end a program allowing employees to get paid for unused vacation and sick time.

Again, there is no definite calculation of how many of those 217 positions mean real job losses and how many involve already vacant jobs.

In contrast to the school district and North Las Vegas, it was a distinct pleasure to read about the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District's budget process.

This week, the library district board approved a $65 million budget, $1.5 million lower than the last one, and no further layoffs are planned.

Two years ago, the library district eliminated 93 jobs. While some were vacant and some employees retired, 42 full- and part-time people were laid off.

Unlike school district and North Las Vegas workers today, library employees previously agreed to give up raises and freeze certain benefits to save co-workers from further layoffs.

Library employees also are union members, Teamsters Local 14. But their mindset during negotiations was: What can we do to save jobs?

"We tried hard to be as transparent as possible," said Jeanne Goodrich, executive director of the library district. There were no angry accusations that the library was hiding available funds. "They understood the reality."

As the Credibility Games draw to an end at the school district and North Las Vegas, we'll get answers whether public employee unions are leading their members off a cliff, saving some and abandoning others, or if management really has been huffing and bluffing as a negotiation scare tactic.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday.
Email her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.