A reader writes in, responding to Mayor Ed Murray’s unhinged rhetoric about the sanctity of confidential labor contract negotiations with the Seattle Police Officers Guild, after we published internal documents from the process:
Keep up the good work covering this story.
I’m sure you know, and I hope Seattles’ mayor does, too, that public-sector labor negotiations are NOT universally considered “sacrosanct,” and relegated to the deepest, darkest backrooms of the Holiest of Holies. FDR (no right-winger himself, if I understand correctly) never thought public-sector unions could work out in the first place.
And there are several states where public-sector collective bargaining is required to be held in open session; our neighbor to the south, Oregon (home to a liberal or two last time I checked) has it right in its law code:
“Labor negotiations shall be conducted in open meetings unless negotiators for both sides request that negotiations be conducted in executive session.” (ORS 192.660(3))
For several years I’ve been hoping to get something like this added to our RCWs. I contacted one of the negotiators for from the Oregon School Board Association to see how it had been working out, and she basically said that the unions were a little freaked out at first, but then everyone just gets used to the new way of doing things and adjusts accordingly.
At any rate, the public ought to at least have a spectator seat at how their tax money is being spent; in the case of labor negotiations, our only role under the current system is to pay the bill.
So, yes, please, keep it up. I will continue to follow this story with great interest.
Rodman Reynolds
Everett
Conservatives, particularly the Washington Policy Center, have long agitated against the state’s unusual confidentiality rules on public sector unions. But the Obama Department of Justice and most police accountability officials in Seattle also say the collective bargaining process with SPOG should be open to the public. And most of the state’s major editorial boards—the Tri-City Herald, The Bellingham Herald, Spokesman Review, and the Seattle Times—have argued against the current level of secrecy.