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Arizona Collective Bargaining Ban Stalled – By Lack of GOP Support

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Last week, when Arizona legislators introduced four bills that would decimate the rights of public workers, things were looking bleak. The Arizona House and Senate have Republican majorities, and the Governor Jan Brewer is no fan of collective bargaining (or immigrant rights, or corporate accountability, or complete sentences).

But at least two of those anti-union bills, including one that would outright ban collective bargaining for state workers, are on the rocks – and we may have pro-worker Republicans to thank for it.

Talking Points Memo reports:

On Tuesday, however, two Republican leaders in the Senate told the Arizona Guardian (sub. req.) they don’t have enough votes to keep the bill alive.

“Senate President Steve Pierce and Senate Whip Frank Antenori expressed serious doubt that there were enough Republicans in the upper chamber willing to pass a bill ending collective bargaining,” the Guardian reported. Antenori described the bill’s chances as “questionable.”

Even Gov. Brewer, no stranger to controversy, is keeping the collective bargaining bill at an arm’s length. “All I can tell you definitively,” said Gov. Brewer’s spokesman Matthew Benson, “is that…there was no coordination with the governor or her office in the development of those bills.” Benson also said that if the bills reach the Governor’s desk that she would “weigh them on the merits.”

That’s political speak for “please don’t write in the paper that these bills were my idea.”

As Dave Dayen writes at Firedoglake, this is the departure from the pattern of 2011. In Wisconsin, it’s been well-documented that Republicans pulled out all the stops to ram through their anti-union “budget repair” bill. In Ohio, which has a much stronger labor presence than Arizona, Senate Bill 5 was passed the same way. And of course, in Indiana last month, Speaker Bosma and Gov. Daniels risked enormous Super Bowl protests to push through a ban on fair share clauses.

We’re remaining vigilant on this issue: even though Arizona GOP doesn’t seem fully behind the collective bargaining ban, that bill has already been passed out of committee, and could get a full vote any day.

Besides, two other anti-worker bills will see a vote today: one would prohibit the government from paying an employee for union activities, while the other would prohibit automatic deduction for union dues which help pay for basic representation. Arizona already has a ban on fair share clauses for all workers.

Until we hear official commitments to keep basic rights for public workers from legislators on both sides of the aisle, there’s no reason to assume these attacks on workers won’t continue. But the apparent lack of interest in the war on workers (in a state that has never backed down from useless, punitive, ALEC-inspired laws) is a heartening, if small, sign of hope.

Tags: Arizona, Jan Brewer, Rights At Work