Revised Collective Bargaining Proposal Heads Back To Council

ALEXANDRIA, VA — On Tuesday, Alexandria City Council will hear a revised proposal for establishing collective bargaining between city government and certain city employees. Disagreements between employee organizations and the city remain on a number of issues.

The proposed ordinance was first presented to City council on Feb. 9 ahead of a Virginia law taking effect on May 1, 2021 allowing counties, cities and towns to adopt ordinances to recognize labor unions or employee associations as a bargaining unit and enter into collective bargaining. Collective bargaining had existed in 19 Virginia localities, including Alexandria, until a 1977 Virginia Supreme Court ruling stopped local governments from collective bargaining with their employees. The new state law does not mandate that a locality extend bargaining rights to its employees, but localities must vote to adopt or not adopt an ordinance "within 120 days of receiving certification from a majority of public employees" in an appropriate bargaining unit.

After City Manager Mark Jinks put forward the original proposed collective bargaining ordinance, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), a union for public employees, put out a statement against the proposal. AFSCME, as well as the IAFF Local 2141 firefighters union say they want a collective bargaining ordinance that doesn't limit the scope of bargaining to wages and benefits, has a "fair and impartial grievance procedure and a neutral arbitration process, and doesn't limit non-public safety bargaining units to two.

On Feb. 9, City Council provided feedback to staff to create a revised proposal for the March 9 meeting. In addition, City Council directed staff to work with employee organizations to come to agreements on five major areas: the scope of bargaining, the number of bargaining units, public safety supervisors excluded from bargaining, procedures for selection of the labor relations administrator and resolution of negotiation impasses.

According to a memo from Jinks to City Council, the city came to an agreement with employee organizations on some but not all issues. City staff still recommend limiting the scope of bargaining to wages and benefits.

Staff also still recommend excluding public safety supervisors from collective bargaining due to potential conflicts of interest supervisory employees. Under the proposal, supervisors, managerial employees, and confidential employees would not be eligible for collective bargaining, with includes those who work directly for City Council, the City Manager's Office, the City Attorney's Office, the Department of Human Resources and any other department or position where the employee has authorized access to city personnel files, and the Office of Management and Budget. For police, that includes sergeants and lieutenants, and for fire, it includes lieutenants and captains. However, the revised proposal calls for an obligation on the city manager to meet and confer with supervisory employees to address salary and benefit compression issues.

Staff still recommend that negotiation impasses be subject to non-binding mediation. Employee organizations called for binding arbitration to settle matters not impacting appropriations or the expenditure of funds. City staff believe this procedure would likely constrain City Council’s ability to establish a budget or appropriate funds, could go against the Code of Virginia. This section of the code suggests collective bargaining should not constrain the ability of government to establish a budget or appropriate funds.

The original proposal had four bargaining units: the police unit, the fire unit, the labor and trades unit, and the general government unit. The new proposal calls for five bargaining units by splitting the general government unit into the professional and technical unit and the administrative and clerical unit.

Staff and employee organizations came to an agreement on the selection of the labor relations administrator. Both parties agreed that interested labor organizations should participate in the selection of the initial labor relations administrator, whether they will be the exclusive bargaining representative for a bargaining unit or not.

Members of IAFF Local 2141 have been out in various locations to draw support for safety, fairness and efficiency in collective bargaining.

The proposal going to City Council on Tuesday calls for adoption on first reading and a second reading and public hearing on March 13.