State worker unions plan joint collective bargaining bill

Wednesday, Jan. 15, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

State workers are the only group of government employees without such rights. Local government employees got collective bargaining rights in 1969.

An agreement on a joint legislative lobbying effort was announced Wednesday by the State of Nevada Employees Association, Service Employees International Union and Nevada Highway Patrol Association.

Their proposal, similar to a bill that didn't survive the 1995 session, calls for creation of nine collective bargaining units in state government and creation of a new labor relations board named by the governor and legislative leaders.

The measure would provide for negotiations on salary, wages, benefits and working conditions. Arbitration would be advisory on economic issues and binding on working conditions.

The proposal also says the Legislature would have final say on any contract reached between a union and the governor.

The plan to try again for collective bargaining actually started in 1995, after lawmakers buried another collective bargaining plan and gave state workers 8 percent pay hikes spread over two years - a raise that disappointed many of them.

During the 1995 session, the bill giving some collective bargaining rights to state employees moved from the Assembly Government Affairs Committee to the Assembly floor on a split 7-7 vote.

From there, the plan was rerouted to the Ways and Means Committee where it was shelved.

The same unions that have agreed on a common plan this year tried with mixed success in 1995 to come up with a single plan.

The version that finally emerged in that session deleted binding arbitration between the governor and worker groups for wages, allowed no more than 10 bargaining units, and let unions negotiate conditions of employment and related matters with agencies.

In its final form, it was similar to one vetoed by Gov. Bob Miller in 1991.