More Oklahoma Municipal Workers Win with AFSCME
January 01, 2006
Lawton city employees celebrate their achievement
Photo by: Mark Cavanah
More than 450 city employees in Lawton, Okla., have become the latest of the state’s thousands of unrepresented municipal workers to gain collective bargaining rights under a law championed by AFSCME.
“Lawton will be stronger for today’s decision,” says Karolyn Anders, a senior adult coordinator for the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, following a decision Oct. 12 by the Public Employees Relations Board (PERB) to certify AFSCME as the exclusive representative for the Lawton employees.
The ballots submitted by workers indicating their interest in joining AFSCME were originally filed in 2004 after passage of a state law requiring cities of 35,000 people or more to recognize non-uniformed employee unions. PERB’s two-year delay in certifying that an overwhelming majority of Lawton’s workers elected to form a union with AFSCME was caused by a city lawsuit filed to block the count.
In July 2005, the law was ruled unconstitutional by the state’s highest court. AFSCME appealed, pointing out that the court’s decision conflicted with 80 years of legal precedent on population-based laws. This March, the court reversed itself and upheld the law as constitutional, then reaffirmed its decision in September on an appeal from the city of Lawton. The reversal opened the door to PERB’s certification this week.
Lawton employees will soon elect a committee to start negotiating their first contract. Says Anders: “We look forward to making our hometown a better place to live.
”In August, 280 city employees in Enid became the state’s first public workers to form a union – with AFSCME – under the 2004 law, which covers some 9,000 municipal employees statewide. They are now at the bargaining table. Last month, about 100 employees in Moore also received certification to form a union with AFSCME, and have elected a bargaining committee. Thousands of employees in other cities are close behind.
