September 15, 2008
Opening union contract negotiations to the public
New York State bars the public from attending collective bargaining sessions between the Governor's Office of Employee Relations and unions representing state government employees--although the negotiations likely will commit taxpayers to hundreds of millions of dollars of spending.
"These negotiations, like almost all other government actions, should be opened to the public," concludes a national report, The State of Labor: The Expansion of Collective Bargaining by the Evergreen Freedom Foundation based in Washington state.
...open negotiations provide an additional layer of protection against perceived conflicts of interest by elected officials who negotiate contracts with unions that also help finance the officials' campaigns.
With a skeptical eye, the report examines the costs of collective bargaining and its expansion in Washington state, Iowa, Colorado and California. It observes:
As governments cave to the high demands of Big Labor, there is less money available for states to operate, maintain current projects, and fix or repair failing infrastructure.
Collective bargaining agreements are negotiated by gubernatorial appointees and then must be ratified by legislators, shifting constitutional of power over the budget from legislature to the governor, the report says. For example:
In Washington state, the legislature's role has shifted from determining state salaries and benefits based on available revenue and program obligations to voting "yea" or "nay" on funding for a total labor package negotiated by other parties. This shift is an improper delegation of legislative authority.
The Evergreen Freedom Foundation's efforts to obtain documents relating to tentative collected bargaining agreements before they were ratified by the Washington state Legislature are documented here.
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