photo by: Mike Yoder

Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St., is pictured Thursday, July 7, 2016.

City leaders will soon consider changes to the local resolution governing city employee unions that an area union says are “anti-worker.”

Teamsters Local 696 requested changes in December to the resolution that union representatives say will ensure employees’ right to organize and join a union, but have come out against the measures that city staff have proposed in response to its request. As part of its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will consider adopting changes dealing with the division of employee groups for the purposes of unionization and the voting process for unionization, among other changes.

City staff is recommending some changes, though not as extensive as the Teamsters requested. Matt Hall, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 696, said in a news release that the type of anti-worker measures included in the city’s proposal were disturbing, especially for a largely progressive city like Lawrence.

The current resolution divides city employees into four groups that could potentially unionize. The union proposed there be eight groups instead. Hall has said the current divisions are problematic for organizational purposes because employees who don’t interact and who have different jobs, working conditions and needs are lumped together.

The city is proposing six groups, saying that increase will address the need and balance costs for the city. Specifically, the memo states that the increased workload associated with any increase in the number of employee groups will exceed current staff capacity and require additional staffing resources. The memo states increasing the number of groups to six will balance the need for additional resources with a desire to make it easier for employees to be represented.

Regarding voting, the current resolution requires that 50% of all the employees in any one of the employee groups — not 50% of those employees who choose to vote — must agree to the union representation. The union has proposed that the requirement be 50% of the employees who vote, arguing that the current framework counts those who don’t vote as “no” votes. Hall said in the news release that the framework undermines voting rights and denies workers the right to organize.

Hall has previously told the commission that there is an employee group that is interested in unionizing, but has not said which group. Currently, there are two unions representing city employees, one for police and another for fire and medical employees.

The memo to the commission also provides more details about the staff hours needed to negotiate contracts with the existing unions.

In the years contract discussions occur, the city’s negotiating team devotes approximately 640 hours for each contract, according to the memo. In addition, other administrative staff spend about 240 hours on tasks related to contract discussions and compliance. The memo notes adding more employee groups would require additional staff and that the cost of adding one additional fulltime employee to serve as chief negotiator would cost about $112,000.

Other changes recommended by city staff include changes to procedures when the city and union negotiators cannot agree on portions of the contract. Currently, when impasse is reached the final proposals from both sides are sent to the City Commission, which selects one of the proposals in its entirety. City staff is recommending that the commission’s decision no longer be “all or nothing,” and that instead the commission be allowed to take the action it deems to be in the public interest. All proposed changes are available on the city’s website.

Following the Teamsters’ proposal, the local firefighters union also proposed changes to the resolution. The Lawrence professional firefighters have proposed that its union contract also cover fire captains, which union representatives say work alongside other union employees. Union Vice President John Darling also said the union is opposed to some of the city’s proposed changes, including the changes to the impasse procedures and changes to the resolution’s definition of working conditions covered by union agreements. Darling said the current impasse procedures incentivize compromise and the current definition of working conditions is more inclusive. He said the changes to the definition proposed by the city exclude health and safety issues central to the union’s contract with the city.

The Lawrence City Commission will convene at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.