Althoff Move on Collective Bargaining

A press release from State Senator Pam Althoff:

Althoff’s compromise bill protects collective bargaining standards

Pam Althoff

Pam Althoff

Protecting the financial integrity of local governments in arbitration proceedings with firefighter units, Senate Bill 2195, sponsored by State Senator Pamela Althoff (R-McHenry), clarifies that the high standard used by arbitrators to rule on manning proposals will not change with the passage of the controversial minimum manning legislation (HB 5485) in 2014.

“As an advocate for protecting local governments and taxpayers, I believe this legislation was necessary to clarify an issue that might have resulted in more tax dollars being expended due to unclear direction to arbitrators,” said Senator Althoff.

After becoming law in 2014, House Bill 5485/PA 98-1151 added staffing levels, also known as “manning,” to the list of mandatory subjects of collective bargaining for firefighters.

If an agreement cannot be reached, the local government and the collective bargaining unit will be subject to binding arbitration.

Many local governments expressed concerns that House 5485 would alter the way arbitrators determine whether changes to manning are necessary.

To ease their concerns, Senator Althoff introduced Senate Bill 2195 this spring to clarify that the “breakthrough analysis” standards would remain unchanged, thus protecting the integrity of the negotiation process.

Senate Bill 2195 is a compromise bill negotiated by the firefighters and municipal groups. It unanimously passed the Senate Executive Committee and has been sent to the Senate floor for further action.


Comments

Althoff Move on Collective Bargaining — 2 Comments

  1. The public sector collective bargaining laws in Illinois heavily favor labor at the expense of taxpayers.

    One item taxpayers need is a change document which lists every single change in a new collective bargaining agreement, including strike through for deletions and underlined text for additions.

    Employers and boards need to post the change document for taxpayer transparency.

    It’s ridiculous to expect a taxpayer to read to 75 page documents word for word to determine what changes occurred.

    Many boards / employers don’t bother posting the current collective bargaining agreement.

    Many boards / employers delete previous collective bargaining agreements after the new one is posted.

    Many boards / employers don’t post subsequent changes to collective bargaining agreements, including appendixes, addendums, memorandums of understanding (mou’s), side letters, letters of agreement, riders, etc.

    Many boards / employers post documents that cannot be searched and / or copy and paste information unless the document is somehow optimized.

    And the list goes on and on.

    Just basic common sense reforms.

    One of the major reasons we have unsustainable government finances.

    It’s too easy to hide and bury stuff from the taxpayer.

    It takes way too much time for watchdogs to obtain and review information.

  2. If Pam was truly a conservative she would not be introducing legislation which retains any form of collective bargaining in the public sector,

    Thank you! Pam!

    Your local 150 colors are as evident as that very colorful flag!

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