SEIU Members in Carson City for 76th Legislative Session
was a challenge for SEIU Nevada Local 1107 and all public employee Unions, but despite the challenges we faced, we were successful in protecting collective bargaining rights and retirement benefits for our members. Before the session started, all eyes were focused on Wisconsin and there was a great amount of anticipation of what was going to happen in Nevada. If Wisconsin taught us one thing, it was that every member needs to be involved in the political process.
SENATE & GOVERNOR’S RACE
It became very apparent during the mid-term election process how important it is for all of us to be involved in the political process and SEIU members stepped up and turned-out to campaign for both for Sen. Harry Reid and Rory Reid. Watching what was happening in other states, from New Jersey to Wisconsin, all public employees had concerns about what a Republican Governor would mean in Carson City. Our members worked hard in all local campaigns to support politicians who said they would stand up and support working families.
STATE OF THE STATE
SEIU held a State of the State watch-party on Monday, January 24. Our hall was packed with Union members to hear what Governor Brian Sandoval had to say about the budget, collective bargaining and health care. In the weeks prior to the Governor’s address, SEIU made home healthcare a priority. Our ADDUS members worked hard to get a commitment from Rory Reid to avoid cuts to programs that were being proposed by out-going Governor Gibbons. It became a hot-topic during the Reid/Sandoval debate and indications were that candidate Sandoval was going to adopt the Gibbons plan. The day of the State of the State, a spokesperson for Gov. Sandoval announced that cuts to the most vulnerable members of our state would be avoided. Sandoval echoed these sentiments in his televised speech.
Even with the success in home health care, there was still plenty of reason to be concerned. There was a very public fight over public workers raging in Wisconsin. There was a lot of ink in our local Op-Ed pages and from biased research groups, falsely accusing Nevada’s public employee pensions fund as being unsustainable. To combat these inaccurate reports, SEIU President Al Martinez, along with other Union leaders worked hard to educate the new Governor and his staff on our retirement system and the fact that it was one of the most healthy programs in the nation. Not only that, but to change the system would be complicated, incredibly costly, and introduce risk without introducing additional return on investment.
Governor Sandoval’s speech focused on education reform. It looked like the Governor would position himself less like Wisconsin’s Scott Walker and more like New Jersey’s Chris Christie. Only late in the speech was collective bargaining and the public employee retirement system addressed and each only got a sentence or two. Governor Sandoval said there would be reform, but he was unspecific and noncommittal. We weren’t celebrating. Instead public employee Unions were unifying.
NEVADA V. WISCONSIN
The Governor didn’t say much about collective bargaining or the Public Employe Retirement System (PERS) in his televised address, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t looking at it. The attack in Wisconsin was centered on one piece of anti-collective bargaining legislation. Nevada would have seven different bills from Legislators that would attack collective bargaining and retirement in different ways. One difference between Wisconsin and Nevada was the political makeup of the two states. Wisconsin had a Republican majority and Governor, so they only needed one broad-based bill to attack collective bargaining. Nevada’s Legislative makeup consists of a Democratic majority, albeit not a super-majority, with a Republican Governor. An all out Wisconsin-like attack against collective bargaining didn’t look feasible. To that point, the worst threat to collective bargaining, SB41, carried over from the Gibbons administration was struck down by Governor Sandoval. For those committed to weakening the middle class in Nevada, this left a strategy of throwing as much against the wall as possible and seeing what would stick. Included in that strategy were bills that attacked:
- Seniority,
- Binding Arbitration,
- The Fact Finding Process,
- Supervisors Covered by Collective Bargaining,
- Due-Process for Teachers, and
- How Employees Pay for Dues.
PUBLIC EMPLOYEE COALITION – NEVADANS FOR NEVADA
Even before the events in Wisconsin, it became obvious from Nevada’s last legislative session that Public Employee Unions had to communicate better and stand together to protect our collective interests. The Public Employee Coalition brought a lot of different leaders together; some who never worked together before this legislative session. Represented were leaders from AFSCME, Clark County Education Association (CCEA), North Las Vegas Police, Metro, Las Vegas city workers, public employees from northern Nevada, firefighters and many other Unions. Soon after our first meetings, Coalition members would be meeting with Legislative Leadership and with the Governor. The initial goals of the Coalition were to protect collective bargaining and defend public employee benefits and retirement.
SEIU AT THE TABLE
Our Union learned in 2009 that to be effective in Carson City, we needed to have a seat at the table. When the Public Employee Coalition formed their Executive Board, they elected SEIU President Al Martinez to chair the coalition. SEIU Nevada would be front-and-center in Carson City and with public employees state-wide. Before the legislative session was in full-swing, the Coalition had many successes. We mobilized members, including members of the Culinary Union who joined with us to participate in distributing literature in the community. The reaction from legislators was swift. Coalition Leaders were called into meetings with Legislators and sometimes the information we received from them was direct. Assemblyman Pete Goicechea told the coalition: we are going to use you as leverage. Assemblyman Mark Sherwood was just as direct when he was quoted in the local media as saying, “They don’t get it, we don’t care!” Throughout the process, President Martinez, with the other Coalition Leaders had regular meetings with Democratic leadership, working together to protect public employees.
SUPPORT FOR PUBLIC EMPLOYEES
The Coalition’s first milestone was raising money both for the campaign ahead and to show that everyone at the table was committed to seeing this process through, together, to the June 6 close-of-session date. The second milestone was collecting necessary research to help guide us to our goals. We hired well known and respected pollster Lisa Grove to understand how Nevadans feel about public employees, public retirement systems and even the Governor. The poll took the pulse of Nevadans and we were pleasantly surprised by the results. Our pollster talked to Republicans, Independents and of course Democrats. A broad demographic of respondents were surveyed from the North and South. The result: All Nevadans overwhelmingly appreciated public employees. Those surveyed said that public employee pay was fair and even non-Union households agreed that public employee pay was too low. Respondents also said that the retirement system, what they knew about it, was fair and that other benefits were fair.
WORKING TOGETHER IN CARSON CITY
The Coalition worked together to get its message out to Legislators in Carson City and the public and when bills were being heard, the Coalition further demonstrated its unity by publicly testifying. Two bills, Senate Bill (SB)343 and SB98, brought together every leader from the Coalition to attend their respective hearings and testify. SEIU was well represented by a member who testified against SB343. SB343 was written to take away the option for a fact finding decision to be binding. It also said that if there was no decision, the fact finder would default to the employer’s last best giving an unfair advantage to emplyers during bargaining. Clark County employee and SEIU VP Martin Bassick testified that the law didn’t need to be changed because the process works, as-is. SB343 was killed and a similar bill, SB98 which affected binding arbitration for police and firefighters was heavily modified despite Senator Mike Roberson’s and the Chamber of Commerce’s misleading rhetoric.
LOBBYING
Lobbying is a critical component in the political process to protect our interests and our rights. SEIU, like many organizations had paid lobbyists in Carson City, but when we could, we also brought our members to meet with Legislators. Some of those meetings were scheduled, such as a discussion with Senator Ruben Kihuen and sometimes they were impromptu, like a conversation County employees had with Assemblyman Mark Sherwood. These meetings are effective because our members get to speak for themselves, about issues that affect them and their colleagues. During the hectic pace of the session, it’s sometimes the only opportunity our Legislators get to hear directly from their constituents.
When a Supreme Court decision came down with a ruling that said it was illegal for the State to raid local coffers, a significant amount of political leverage disappeared. The “leverage” that northern Nevada legislators were planning on using to “reform” collective bargaining was gone. In a day it looked like Republicans would not be able to trade taxes for so-called reform to close the budget. Despite this, there were still threats to public employees. While SB98 was originally designed to take away binding arbitration, it was heavily amended. The Coalition worked hard behind the scenes letting Legislators know we stood together against any language attached to SB98 that would be harmful to public employees . SEIU and the Public Employee Coalition worked to the very last day of the session to ensure the voices of our members were represented and heard.
WHAT WE FACED & WHAT WE LEARNED
Near the end of the session, the list of devastating bills attacking collective bargaining and retirement benefits was reduced to one bill with amendments that had language regarding supervisors and economic re-openers. The media called this bill “faux-reform” for collective bargaining. One amendment allows for contracts longer than one year to be re-opened if there is an economic crisis. The other amendment says that supervisors who are appointed AND who are defined by a long list of other qualifiers (e.g. hire and fire, make budgetary decisions, make collective bargaining decisions, etc) and who are physicians or civil attorneys cannot be covered by collective bargaining agreements. SEIU and the Coalition is confident this bill and its amendment does not impact our members. Unfortunately, our Coalition partners, Teachers, had due process and seniority weakened as a result of the session. SEIU and Coalition members talked to Legislators and made sure they understood that an attack on one Coalition member was an attack on us all.
The efforts to reform collective bargaining were unnecessary. Collective bargaining in Nevada has been successful for over 40-years. The bills that were proposed wouldn’t have helped the budget or the economy. They were proposed for one reason only: to use Public Employees as leverage. We learned that we can’t let this happen again and we learned that a coalition of Unions can work together and be effective in Carson City. This session also put SEIU at the table, in the streets and at rallies. Our members testified in Carson City and at the Grant Sawyer building in Las Vegas and lobbied in Carson City. Moving forward, the Coalition has already met and is defining goals and a plan for the next session in 2013.
The 76th Legislative session should always serve as a reminder to all of our members that participation in the process is necessary for us to protect our rights. SEIU offers members many opportunities to get involved. It all starts with COPE and you can read more about COPE on this website, but you can become more actively involved with our Member Political Organizer program. We recognize we have members who are Democrats AND Republicans and all are welcome at the table. SEIU supports representatives who stand for our ideals and support working families.