Binding Arbitration on the Chopping Block ?
By Marc Garman
6/5/09
This Wednesday at 7PM the metal is expected to hit the meat. The members of Vallejo's Charter Review Committee are expected to vote on charter section 809: Binding Arbitration.
Chairman Mark Fox made his views clear at the last meeting when he described 809 as “f****d up” and “designed to fail the people”. VIDEO
Fox, who works as an Assistant City Manager in Pittsburg CA, but lives in Vallejo, is no stranger to the workings of government or to labor negotiations. He is a man who carefully chooses his words with an evident care, restraint and precision. This makes his passionate condemnation of Vallejo City Charter section 809 all the more resounding.
The Charter Review Committee has entertained presentations from a number of interested parties.
Union lawyer Alan Davis, the “Johnny Appleseed” of binding arbitration, spoke of his long involvement in working to proliferate binding arbitration in California. “I remember, I was there...” were words he frequently repeated as he discussed specific cases and historical precedents.
Jim Libien, from the citizens' group Committee to Remove Binding Arbitration spoke of the loss of local control and the dangers of bringing in a third party to make management decisions.
Members of the public, as well as Vallejo's labor unions, labor lawyers Ronald Yank and Art Hardinger and representatives for the city from the law firm Renne, Sloan, Holtzman and Sakai LLP also addressed the Charter Review Committee.
The process has indeed been enlightening.
The members of the Charter review Committee have three basic possible recommendations to vote on:
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Leave charter sec. 809 untouched—no action
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Allow the citizens the opportunity to remove sec.809--by placing it on the ballot-- potentially allowing decisions to be made under the guidelines of the Meyers, Milias Brown Act. --i.e. California state law
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Change sec. 809—a rewrite
The binding arbitration provision in the Vallejo City Charter has long stuck in the craw of many city officials and concerned citizens.
It has also been lauded as a necessary tool to resolve conflicts by Vallejo's labor unions. Time for the fourteen citizens on the dais to show their cards. Of course, the Charter Review Committee can only pass their recommendations on to the City Council. They have no legislative power.
Will the City Council Majority ignore their own appointees if they don't like what they have to say ? Guess we'll have to wait and see.