Union Head Dissatisfied with Binding Arbitration Bill

A bill that would formally grant binding arbitration to one of the largest county government unions is meeting with disapproval from the president of the Baltimore County Federation of Public Employees.

John Ripley said the bill, introduced at Monday night's County Council meeting, creates "unnecessary delays and unfairly restricts our rights to negotiate."

Prior to the November 2010 vote, only police and fire department employees were given the right to binding arbitration.

The referendum, approved by more than 171,000 voters across the county, gave that power to the union representing more than 1,600 employees.

Since then, the county has been slow to enact legislation based on the referendum question, which was an exact duplicate of language used to create the law for police and fire unions, according to Ripley.

The bill introduced Monday night "is completely different from the 2003 referendum for police and fire," Ripley said.

The bill, as introduced, gives the union the right to binding arbitration on issues of wages and pension benefits but not terms and conditions of employment—rights the fire and police unions have.

The bill, if passed next month, would not go into effect until November 2014.

"There are situations where the terms and conditions of employment could create an impasse," Ripley said.