Union leaders in Spokane are doing what union leaders do best: Remarking that a strike is not off the table if they don’t get what they want. (Never mind that it is illegal for public employees to strike in Washington state. See here.)
Public employee unions sometimes hold taxpayers hostage by threatening an illegal strike and cutting off public services. They seem happy to threaten one when negotiations about pay aren’t going their way. In this instance, however, those negotiations themselves are not the center of debate. The latest strike threat is about whether taxpayers get to know what is happening in negotiations that will decide how millions of public dollars are spent.
In the past, meetings between local governments and workers' unions have been private, and some union bosses want to keep it that way — so much so that striking/law-breaking is apparently not off the table, according to this report by Casey Decker with KREM 2 News. (Ironically, some union members would like to know what happens behind closed doors on their behalf.)
Since taxpayers are the ones paying the government’s bills, however, Spokane city voters overwhelmingly supported a charter amendment to make such meetings public. Spokane County commissioners passed a resolution requiring the same. And when public workers in Spokane picketed outside the Spokane County Courthouse Friday, they called County Commissioners Josh Kerns and Al French “bullies” for representing the interests of taxpayers and supporting transparent negotiations.
Many localities and states across the country (including in Oregon and Idaho) operate with trust and transparency. As Chris Cargill, the Eastern Washington director for Washington Policy Center, said in a recent Spokesman-Review column, Spokane County just announced a new contract negotiated in public with the Public Works Guild. John Preston, president of that union, said “there was no reason to fear open meetings.”
“Explaining why the Pullman School District embraces collective bargaining transparency,” Cargill added, “the district’s finance manager, Diane Hodge, said, ‘We just think it’s fair for all of the members to know what’s being offered on both sides.’”
Instead of being interested in fairness, Gordon Smith, staff representative for the Washington State Council of County and City Employees' union, is interested in political theater. He told KREM, "We're hoping that through our media campaign and actions like this ... the commissioners will reconsider” — and reimpose a system of secrecy.
The union says it might strike if it doesn’t get what it wants. So it's really Spokane’s taxpayers who should feel bullied. Transparent and accountable government is nothing to fear.