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Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Ind. Gov't. - "AFL-CIO sues state over state law banning collective bargaining"

Lesley Weidenbener reports this afternoon for The Franklin Online:

INDIANAPOLIS – A public employees union filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Gov. Mitch Daniels and his personnel director challenging a new state law that bans collective bargaining between the state and any union.

The suit – filed in the Marion County courts – says the law takes away any future governor’s ability to sign an executive order that would confer collective bargaining rights to state employees.

“It’s been well established that administration of state employees is the role and responsibility of the executive branch of Indiana state government,” said David Warrick, executive director of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 62, which represents state employees.

“This law is an attempt to blindside established precedence and leave state employees with no ability to enjoy the same rights of a private employee,” Warrick said. * * *

The state’s three previous governors – Evan Bayh, Frank O’Bannon and Joe Kernan, all Democrats – signed executive orders extending bargaining rights to state employees. During that time, AFSCME represented roughly 3,600 state employees and maintained union contracts and good employee/employer relationships with the state, the union said.

However, when Daniels took office in 2005, the Republican rescinded those collective bargaining rights, saying he feared they would get in the way of significant changes he wanted to make in state government operations.

Then this spring, the GOP-controlled General Assembly put that ban on collective bargaining into state law.

The lawsuit seeks to nullify the law under the separation of powers provision within the Indiana Constitution “because the executive branch of state government has jurisdiction over administrative procedures and employee/employer relations—not the legislative branch,” AFL-CIO officials said.

The lawsuit also asserts that the General Assembly violated the single-subject requirement of the Indiana Constitution when it added the labor provisions to the budget bill.

Indiana courts have denied similar challenges to the legislative practice of so-called log-rolling, which involves adding unrelated provisions to popular or must-pass bills.

The ILB hopes to obtain and post a copy of the suit.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 31, 2011 02:47 PM
Posted to Indiana Government