/$%255(/$7,216$1' 1(*27,$7,216(59,&(6

Labor Relations and Negotiations Members of Liebert Cassidy Whitmore have successfully negotiated thousands of labor agreements for cities, counties, special districts, the courts, and school and college districts. The negotiations have covered all classes of employees, including a variety of white and blue collar, professional, supervisory and management, and public safety employee bargaining units. Depending on the philosophy and circumstances of an agency, these agreements have run the gamut of relatively brief memorandums of understanding covering primarily benefit items to comprehensive labor agreements that define substantially all negotiable terms of employment, and, through management rights, waiver and "zipper" type clauses, provide protection to management's ability to effectively manage the agency. Members of the Firm are experienced in collaborative/interest based bargaining techniques in addition to the more traditional labor negotiations approach. In addition to conducting negotiations for public employers, we continually work with agencies that employ staff personnel to do their own negotiations. This arrangement involves all aspects of consultation and related services, including drafting and reviewing bargaining proposals, counter proposals and agreement provisions, providing training and advice concerning negotiating strategies, and giving advice or stepping into the process when particular problems arise.

Our Approach to Negotiations

y

We work with and for the chief administrative official and his/her designated staff, and through him/her with the Governing Body. We provide professional advice to assist the agency in determining its policy goals and objectives, which then become our goals and objectives; we see our job as applying our best efforts and skills to achieving those goals and timetables. We believe in carefully organizing for negotiations, with goals and objectives kept well in mind. The negotiating process, we believe, consists of definable stages, from preparatory activities to the preliminary bargaining phases, "hard bargaining," and finally to agreement, impasse procedure, or work action. Each stage of the process requires an organized approach in order to maximize the chances of attaining bargaining objectives.

Our philosophy is not one of "union busting," but rather one of using a professional approach that seeks to achieve and maintain professional relationships, notwithstanding the adversarial aspects of the process. We call to the attention of our clients that in return for agreeing to competitive benefit adjustments in line with client resources, it is reasonable for them to seek to contractually protect and maximize their management discretion to set standards of service and retain the prerogative to direct, assign, and stimulate employees to meet them. We see the conclusion of negotiations as the beginning for establishing a constructive employer-employee organization-employee relations structure, which requires management training and ongoing involvement with agency management on our part.

While one member of the firm handles a particular negotiating unit, at least one other designated attorney will be kept advised so that at all times the client has access to an attorney who is familiar with the status of the situation in each bargaining unit. We have negotiated virtually every issue within the scope of bargaining, including all forms of wages; hours, work schedules and overtime; health and retirement benefits; leaves; discipline and arbitration procedures; layoff and furlough policies; and a wide variety of negotiable working conditions.

During the current period of severe budgetary shortfalls, Firm negotiators have successfully represented clients in negotiating salary and benefit reductions, layoffs and furloughs, reduced pension plans, lowered 2nd tier retirement and retiree health benefits, contracting out of services, and reducing labor costs through modifications in negotiable work rules. In a number of cases these cost savings required negotiating the opening up of currently effective labor agreements. Negotiating Impasses Services provided by the members of the Firm have included direct participation, as well as consultation, in hundreds of mediations. Our attorneys have guided many agencies in preparing its case for fact finding and interest arbitration; and have both represented and served as the panel member in a number of interest arbitrations. Strike Actions We have worked with many public sector employers in contingency planning for job actions and assisting them in strike-related activities. A Firm partner co-authored the "Management Strike Handbook," published by the International Personnel Management Association.

Contract Administration and Grievance Handling The Firm has extensive experience in the area of grievance administration, ranging from the giving of advice at the administrative levels of the grievance process through litigating arbitration cases. Public Employment Relations Board Representation Members of the firm have had many years of experience representing our clients in all phases of PERB proceedings, from consultation and responses to Unfair Labor Practice claims through PERB hearings and court appeals. A Firm partner served as counsel to the PERB Board's first Chairperson as well as serving as a PERB Administrative Law Judge. Another Firm partner represented the League of California Cities and the California Association of Counties in the legislative and administrative proceedings in connection with the PERB assuming jurisdiction over local agency employment relations. Employee Relations and Personnel Policies LCW has developed a comprehensive sample Employer-Employee Relations Resolution/Ordinance that is widely utilized by California's local agencies. It serves to protect local control over key aspects of employment relations which otherwise would be left to the PERB. We advise or represent agencies in consulting with unions in implementing or revising changes in its Resolution or Ordinance. The Firm develops, reviews, revises, and, to the extent required, assists in the negotiation of personnel policies and procedures that are in compliance with changing legal requirements and that facilitate effective personnel administration.

Labor relations is the study and practice of managing unionized employment situations. In academia, labor relations is frequently a subarea within industrial relations, though scholars from many disciplines--including economics, sociology, history, law, and political science--also study labor unions and labor movements. In practice, labor relations is frequently a subarea within human resource management. Courses in labor relations typically cover labor history, labor law, union organizing, bargaining, contract administration, and important contemporary topics.[1] In the United States, labor relations in the private sector is regulated by the National Labor Relations Act. Public sector labor relations is regulated by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 and various pieces of state legislation. In other countries, labor relations might be regulated by law or tradition.

An important professional association for U.S. labor relations scholars and practitioners is the Labor and Employment Relations Association.

Labor Relations
The Department of Labor's Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) is the federal agency responsible for administering and enforcing most provisions of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA). LMRDA directly affects millions of people throughout the United States. The law was enacted to ensure basic standards of democracy and fiscal responsibility in labor organizations representing employees in private industry. The major provisions of LMRDA are: 1) A "bill of rights" for union members; 2) requirements for reporting and disclosure of financial information and administrative practices by labor unions; 3) requirements for reporting and disclosure by employers, labor relations consultants, union officers and employees, and surety companies, when they engage in certain activities; 4) rules for establishing and maintaining trusteeships; 5) standards for conducting fair elections of union officers; and 6) safeguards for protecting union funds and assets. Other federal agencies listed below provide additional services outside the realm of OLMS in labor relations. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is a federal agency that deals primarily with the private sector in administering the National Labor Relations Act by conducting elections to determine whether or not employees want union representation and investigating and remedying unfair labor practices by employers and unions. National Mediation Board (NMB) is a government agency specifically providing guidance to the railway and airlines industries in regards to labor management. The NMB programs provide an integrated dispute resolution process to effectively meet the Railway Labor Act's objective of minimizing work stoppages in the airline and railroad industries.

Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) is responsible for providing leadership in establishing policies and guidance related to federal-sector labor management issues such as the resolution of disputes and ensuring compliance with the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service's (FMCS) primary responsibility is to mediate collective bargaining negotiations and to otherwise assist in development of improved workplace negotiations.