A Progressive
Approach to Labor Relations
PLG represents
public sector and non-profit employers in all facets of labor
relations.
A Stellar
Team
Our approach
melds the decades of experience of public sector labor lawyers
and non-attorney professionals, all of whom have had leadership
positions in labor relations and personnel for public agencies.
We are not just advocates; we are also colleagues with and advisors
to labor relations and personnel professionals and their in-house
attorneys in connection with labor relations, PERB processes,
discipline, and grievance/arbitrations. Our negotiators have
wide-ranging experience in impasse resolution procedures, such
as mediation, fact-finding and interest arbitration in public
agencies in California and Nevada. Throughout negotiations and
impasse resolution process, we maintain a proactive multi-disciplinary
approach, utilizing financial experts, operational experts,
and, if necessary, effective public relations strategies to
achieve workable settlements.
Breadth of Expertise
PLG's experience
spans the entire spectrum of public and non-profit employees,
including police and fire personnel, teachers, nurses, lawyers,
other professional employees, white-collar employees, blue-collar
employees and unionized management employees.
Our role
in public sector labor relations varies widely from one client
to another, depending on client needs, including:
- union
organizing and campaigns; "card check;" bargaining
unit disputes
- unfair
(labor) practice charges
- negotiations
- closed
session strategy sessions and team-building
- financial
issues pertinent to negotiations issues
- structural
changes in retirement and health plans
- strategies
for closures of operations and contracting out
- labor
market "comparability" issues
- interest
arbitrations and complex fact-findings
- grievances
and arbitrations
Trend-Setting
Successes
Our breadth
of experience - for educational employers, local agencies, state
and federal agencies, and non-profit organizations - benefits
clients in all sectors, We not only track the trends in all
of these sectors: our successes are often ground-breaking and
trend-making. Examples of our recent work include:
- developing
strategies for effecting employer-wide changes in health benefits,
pay policy and retirement benefits with multiple bargaining
units
- simultaneous
negotiations with multiple bargaining units to maintain employer-wide
strategic goals while complying with good faith bargaining
requirements
- addressing
public safety emergencies by negotiating agreements with police
unions regarding staffing patterns and scheduling
- handling
the legal and practical impacts of strikes by "safety
sensitive" employees, "partial" strikes, and
strikes against non-profit organizations
- NLRB
and PERB proceedings relating to union organizing efforts
in California charter schools
- Handling
PERB charging alleging discrimination, bad faith bargaining
by unions and management, and unilateral change
- advising
public agencies on means for breaking impasses in bargaining,
including unilateral implementation
- working
with city councils and boards of supervisors on strategies
for containing labor costs
Positive
Energy and Outstanding Teamwork
In both
"interest-based" and "traditional" negotiations
environments, we work closely with labor organizations with
a focus on collegiality and productive problem solving. We strive
to: build direct and honest relationships, establish trust,
work with unions to agree on "the facts," and jointly
develop options. This process helps labor and management reach
the best solutions to complex problems.
We are not
"hired guns;" we are team-builders. Our practice relies
on strong teamwork and communication between firm personnel,
client representatives, and elected officials, mindful of the
political challenges of public sector labor relations. The unique
synergy between our clients and firm personnel, coupled with
respect toward unions and effective communication, help assure
practical, economical and successful results.
Meeting the Special Challenges of Our Sector
Special
challenges exist in the union-friendly environment in which
we work. The union bug on our business cards reflects the respect
we have for the role and work of unions.
However,
a vexing problem exists for the representatives of public and
non-profit agencies. In addition to paying labor costs, public
and non-profit agencies must also fund the non-labor costs of
many essential programs, such as public safety, public health,
education, safe streets and neighborhoods, libraries, public
works, supporting business development, clients in need, parks,
recreation and other ongoing programmatic activities. To succeed
in their missions, public and non-profit employers must strike
a careful balance between labor costs - including ever-increasing
costs of health and retiree benefits - and the costs needed
to ensure the availability of essential services.
The severe
financial limitations public and non-profit employers face day
by day - not a motive to reap a profit - is what often underpins
labor management conflict and misunderstandings. Our philosophy
is that a truly "progressive" approach to public service
and labor relations requires an appropriate balancing between
labor and non-labor costs, rather than placing undue weight
on one side of the scale or the other; it contemplates careful
attention to the agency's overall financial condition, the agency's
ongoing revenue stream, and the unmet needs of the agency's
constituents.