There are still two bills before the General
Assembly that would authorize collective bargaining for public employees,
including school board employees.
HB582 (Guzman) would require public employers,
including school boards, to engage in collective bargaining with employee
organizations. This bill gives school
boards no discretion.
SB939 (Saslaw) is permissive and would allow
local governing bodies, including school boards, to authorize collective
bargaining. Even though this bill is permissive, there are still problems
with this bill. For example, the bill is
ambiguous regarding which body – the local school board or the local governing
body – can authorize collective bargaining. Even more troubling, the
bill arguably permits teacher strikes (while maintaining the ban or law
enforcement and other public employee strikes).
HB582 passed the House of Delegates
and crossed over to the Senate. Earlier
this week, the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee conformed the bill to the language
of SB939 as it passed the Senate (in other words, the Committee changed HB582
to the permissive language) and reported and rereferred the bill to the Senate Finance
Committee.
SB939 passed the Senate and crossed
over to the House. Earlier this week,
the House Labor and Commerce Committee conformed the bill to the language of
HB582 as it passed the House (in other words, the Committee changed SB939 to
the mandatory language) and reported and rereferred the bill to the House
Appropriations Committee.
Put another way, the House is
sticking with its mandatory language and the Senate is sticking with its
permissive language. It is likely that
both bills will end up in conference, where a small group of legislators will
work out the differences between the bills.
VSBA opposes both forms of these
bills. VSBA
has Legislative Position, 4.3, to oppose any legislation which would permit or
expand the authority of any school board to engage in collective bargaining. Click here and here to see more about our
arguments against these bills.
