The General Assembly did not adjourn sine die as scheduled on Saturday. Rather, the session was extended to allow lawmakers to continue acting on bills on Sunday. It was announced that a budget deal as been reached but details have not been released. We expect that the budget will be released on Monday. The General Assembly is expected to vote on the budget on Thursday.
With the extension into Sunday, a number of Democratic initiatives passed. This includes the bill allowing for collective bargaining for public school employees. The two bills were SB939 and HB582. Both bills were sent to conference so that the differences between the House language (mandatory collective bargaining for all public bodies) and Senate language (permissive collective bargaining for local governments and school boards only).
The conference report was announced Saturday afternoon. The conference report authorizes local governments and school boards to allow for collective bargaining by local ordinance or resolution. The conference report also clarifies that teachers cannot strike. In addition, the conference report requires the local governing body or school board to adopt "procedures for the certification and decertification of exclusive bargaining representatives, including reasonable public notice and opportunity for labor organizations to intervene in the process for designating an exclusive representative of a bargaining unit." Finally, the conference report provides that if a majority of public employees in a unit (unit is not defined) want collective bargaining, the board must hold a vote to decide whether to approve collective bargaining. In other words, the unions can force the school board to vote on the issue.
Click here to see the final language of these bills.
