Unions (still) rule

CARSON CITY -- This was supposed to be the session of collective bargaining reform.

After revelations that many Clark County firefighters were making six-figure salaries -- thanks in some cases to copious and strategic uses of overtime, call-back pay and sick leave -- it seemed that this might be the year the Legislature would literally lay down the law. Even though Democrats still run both houses, the revelations couldn't help but produce some modest reforms.

Several bills were introduced on the topic, ranging from the extreme (totally eliminating collective bargaining for local government employees) to the benign (requiring non-binding mediation to resolve disputes before going to binding arbitration). But in the end, most of the proposals died in a series of deadlines Friday.

For example, state Sen. Michael Roberson's Senate Bill 343 failed to emerge from the Legislative Operations and Elections Committee. The bill would have eliminated binding arbitration for everyone but firefighters and police officers; in the event a local government and its unions couldn't agree on contract terms, then the city council or the county commission would make the call.

Roberson says he intended the bill to put some accountability on local elected officials, who frequently claim arbitrators are at fault for too-generous contracts. (Indeed, in most cases in Southern Nevada, arbitrators have found the union's contract proposal to be the more reasonable.) "Now, you've got a nameless, faceless arbitrator making decisions not in the interests of the people," Roberson said. "I want these folks (local elected officials) to be put on the hook for those decisions."

But at least SB343 got a hearing. Another Roberson bill, Senate Bill 342, didn't even come up. It would have made a raft of changes, including requiring public disclosure of the initial offer of both union and local government, so the public could decide which side was being more reasonable. In addition, it would have banned managers and supervisors from being in a union, and would have eliminated automatic union dues deductions from local government paychecks, forcing employees to specifically direct their paychecks be dunned for union dues.

"I'm not giving up on this, I can promise you that," Roberson says, blaming Democrats' fealty to unions -- and to their campaign fundraising and grass-roots organizing ability -- for the death of GOP reform bills.

Despite his rhetoric, however, Roberson says he still thinks there's some common ground with Democrats on collective bargaining, although he's quick to stress no Republicans will vote for taxes in exchange for union changes. Forcing both sides to disclose their initial officer -- current law says it may be done, but hardly ever is -- could be a law both sides can agree upon.

But if there's a message from the first half of the 2011 session, it's that the anti-public employee union wave that's swamped places such as Wisconsin and Indiana has yet to wash up in Nevada. Even with the months of publicity surrounding the Clark County firefighters scandal, things in Carson City haven't changed. Even after studies published by the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce showing Nevada's local government employees (who have the right to collectively bargain) and state employees (who don't have that right) are paid more highly than their national counterparts, union-targeting reforms still fall flat in Carson City.

Roberson said unions testified against his bill by saying the current system works just fine for them. That's a sign, he says, that the balance of power is titled toward employee organizations and -- by necessity -- against the taxpayers who pay the members of those unions. But to organized labor -- and members of the Democratic Party sympathetic to their cause -- the perspective is very different.

"Well, I think it just shows that unions still have their proper place in the world," said one union lobbyist.

Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist, and author of the blog SlashPolitics.com. His column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at 387-5276 or at ssebelius@reviewjournal.com.