Two bills aimed at changing the collective bargaining process for Montgomery County employees were rejected by a County Council committee Monday morning.
The first of the bills would require the council to hold a public hearing on all collective bargaining agreements submitted. It also would require both the union and the county executive to announce their initial positions on major economic provisions of a union’s contract.
The second bill would establish an impasse arbitration panel made up of one neutral arbitrator and one representative of both the union and the county executive’s office. Under the current system, both the union and the county must agree on a person to preside over mediation. If the parties can’t agree on the union contract in mediation, they go to impasse arbitration and the mediator becomes the arbitrator.
Both bills were recommended by a council-appointed commission that advises on government functions as a way to help make the collective bargaining process more effective and efficient. However, the County Council’s Government Operations and Fiscal Policy Committee unanimously rejected both bills.
At a public hearing last week, Municipal and County Government Employees Organization President Gino Renne argued that public scrutiny of the bargaining process would take away both sides’ incentive to reach an agreement.
And two non-neutral members of an arbitration panel would cancel one another out, said County Councilman Hans Riemer, D-at large, at the meeting Monday.
Since the committee is made up of only three council members, the bills still could pass if five council members vote in favor of them.
If passed, the bills would take effect July 1, 2012.
