On March 2, the Greenbelt City Council continued its deliberations at a worksession on expanding collective bargaining rights to the entirety of its non-managerial and non-classified workforce. Currently, the city has a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). The Public Works department (PW) is in the midst of its selection process for a bargaining unit. The worksession discussion focused on how to approach the remaining employees.
Steven Silvestri and Blaine Taylor represented the city’s consultant on these matters, Jackson Lewis P.C. They have been involved in creating draft text, to be voted on at a regular meeting, that would alter the city’s charter and code, to codify this new approach to labor relations in the city.
Mayor Emmett Jordan summed up the city’s desire for fairness and a cooperative relationship with the city’s employees, and the need to find a process that is in the best interest of all parties.
Silvestri laid out two approaches to adopting a bargaining unit (BU). The first was for the city to voluntarily recognize one as appropriate, as was done with the FOP. This option is favored by council.
The second option is to use a labor commissioner to judge any units that are put forward and make a recommendation to the city. This could be helpful if there are multiple options proposed.
It was pointed out by Councilmember Silke Pope and several on council that commissioners are costly and that option requires many paid hours. Thus, limiting the number of choices would be the most tenable and least financially burdensome. Having the union decision process coincide with the budget deliberation process would be highly advisable in order to factor in all costs.
The consensus of the council ended up being that a single bargaining unit encompassing these other workers, alongside PW and FOP, would be the best way forward. An existing union could be used, such as AFSCME, which handles the bulk of the state’s employees, or LiUNA, which has been proposed for PW. Silvestri said it is also possible that a completely new union could be formed specifically for Greenbelt’s workforce.
There was a discussion concerning whether the city may or shall “voluntarily recognize an employee organization as the exclusive representative without prior review by the labor commissioner … if an employee organization demonstrates majority support in an appropriate bargaining unit through authorization cards or other reliable evidence dated within 30 days of submission.” As pointed out by Councilmember Kristen Weaver in a subsequent interview, using “may” allows the city flexibility to choose a secret ballot election (which is always available) as well. This option was favored by Jordan.
Silvestri noted that secret ballot elections of a BU are simply done as well as being less costly.
An in-depth discussion will be needed to determine who will be eligible to bargain collectively, beyond the city’s full-time staff. The major challenge will be on how to approach the city’s part-time and seasonal employees. Establishing a minimum number of hours and whether one receives benefits were put forward as criteria. Many of these seasonal workers return year after year and work long hours, thus making their retention good for the city.
Council is focused on staying within the current salary market for its employees, based on data obtained by regular compensation studies. Having a study at least every three years was agreed on as a good strategy.
Trent Leon-Lierman, a resident and union organizer with LiUNA, said that intimidation and harassment by management are common occurrences in every collective bargaining effort in his experience. Councilmember Frankie Fritz concurred with this, noting the extraordinary imbalance of power in such situations.
Pope acknowledged that there may have been situations where Leon-Lierman heard of intimidation happening in the city, but that she has heard overwhelming reports to the contrary.
Silvestri said that he has seen harassment perpetrated both by unions and management, but that Greenbelt is not a place where this is likely to occur.
Jordan and City Manager Josué Salmerón repeated this sentiment, saying that the city has zero tolerance for this. Salmerón said that staff have been trained against harassment and that there would be consequences for such actions.
Fritz said a clear process needs to exist for workers to report labor grievances, with Jordan and Salmerón saying that workers can use their chain of command, the Human Resources department and, lastly, the Employee Relations Board.
Silvestri said that an amended draft of the collective bargaining policy can be done quickly, allowing the council to be able to vote on this issue soon.
