Wisconsin Council 40
LEGISLATIVE ALERT
AFSCME Green Sheet
Municipal Employment Relations Act


www.afscmecouncil40.org
 

July 11, 2008                                                                       Volume #30, Issue #21

Wisconsin is the birthplace of our union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), now some 1.4 million strong. It is no accident that AFSCME was founded here – Wisconsin has one of the nation’s oldest civil service systems, a retirement system that is without equal and a tradition of union activism that has resulted in landmark legislation to protect the rights of working people and public employees in particular. 

One of the most important laws that protects public employees is the Municipal Employment Relations Act or MERA.  It sets forth a framework for employers and employees (or their union representatives) to negotiate, in good faith, with the goal of reaching an agreement on wages, hours and working conditions. 

The law also establishes a process for resolving disputes between labor and management through the use of an independent arbitrator. Only a tiny fraction of the hundreds of contracts settled every year go to arbitration. Of those, slightly more than half of the settlements favor the employer. Decisions of the arbitrator are binding. MERA works because it is perceived as fair by both sides. 

The law has worked well since it was created in 1978, after a decade of labor strife that resulted in the breakdown of public services.  Between 1970 and 1978, there were 110 strikes or work stoppages.  Passage of MERA eliminated the strife and commenced an era of labor peace that we still enjoy today. Since 1978, the law has been fine tuned, but always in a public and inclusive way that maintains a sense of fairness for both sides. 

Unfortunately, there are some state lawmakers who have sought to change the law to give advantage to the local government employer at the expense of the county or municipal employee.  These lawmakers have proposed legislation to eliminate the right of employees to have a seat at the bargaining table on key issues such as contracting out, choosing health care providers or cutting pension benefits for new employees.  Advocating changes in MERA that would tilt the scales in favor of one side or the other is unwise at best.

AFSCME has been resisting consistent legislative efforts to undermine our collective bargaining laws.  Last summer, Republican lawmakers in the State Assembly boldly attached anti-MERA initiatives to the two-year state budget bill.  They also advanced a plan in the budget that would have cut pay and benefits for state workers. 

The anti-labor budget, put forth by Assembly Republicans, triggered a strong and steady response from AFSCME members, who conducted vigils in the State Capitol through the summer and into the fall.  Due to the activism of our members and the efforts of Democratic lawmakers in the Senate and Assembly who support the public sector, we were able to defeat every one of the anti-worker initiatives in the Assembly budget proposal.

We fully expect that unfriendly legislators will continue to devise clever ways to weaken MERA. When the next Legislature convenes in January of 2009, we hope to not have to spend energy fighting back anti-worker, anti-collective bargaining laws.  Instead, we hope to focus our efforts on supporting the public sector and the workers who provide the vital services that our citizens depend on and which keep our infrastructure and economic system strong.

Lawmakers need to be reminded that their constituents have enjoyed 30 years of labor peace.  Let us not return to the bad old days of strife and strikes like Wisconsin suffered in the 1970’s.