HELENA – State labor unions promised a long fight Thursday after a hearings officer recommended rejecting the unions’ unfair labor practice complaint that alleges wrongdoing when the Legislature nixed a negotiated pay deal.
Board of Personnel Appeals Hearings Officer Terry Spear said in an order issued Wednesday that the labor deal negotiated between the governor’s office and state employee unions held a specific provision that the deal was contingent upon legislative approval.
The labor deal included a 4 percent pay hike over two years for state employees. The Republican-led Legislature rejected the plan and instead imposed a pay freeze.
The legislators argued there was not enough money to pay for the raise. Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who backed the pay deal, countered there was plenty of money and said state employees deserved a small raise after several years of stagnant pay.
The employee unions, which had ratified the negotiated deal with their members, argued the Legislature was unfairly abandoning the collective bargaining process. The Legislature countered that it was under no obligation to simply ratify the deal negotiated by the governor and the unions.
A union spokesman said the unions will appeal the recommended order to the full board, and promised a long fight that could end in court. The unions argue the Legislature should only be allowed to make changes inside the established collective bargaining process.
“We are nowhere near done with this idea. We think there is a clear problem when the Legislature can just say no to a ratified labor agreement we have negotiated just as the Legislature directed us to do,” said MEA-MFT union president Eric Feaver. “We do not think we are out of the water at all. We think we have a lot of sailing yet to go.”
The unions have about three weeks to appeal the proposed order with the full Board of Personnel Appeals. The board will then issue a decision on the matter, which either side can then appeal to the court system.
Feaver said that unions will take an entirely different negotiating tactic next time if the Legislature’s actions are allowed to stand. He said future negotiations with the governor would mean little, and unions would have to be building picket signs even as they ratified the deal.
“What is it then that the Legislature expects state employees to do?” Feaver asked.
The Schweitzer administration recently agreed with the unions to hold level the health care costs for the workers, since an anticipated increase in those costs would have resulted in a net pay cut. That deal does not need legislative approval.