Proposals to limit or eliminate collective bargaining for Fort Wayne city employees will have their first public hearing at tonight’s city council meeting.
The proposals were introduced at last week’s meeting by Republican councilmen John Crawford and Russ Jehl.
Collectively, the measures repeal collective bargaining rights for all city union employees and consolidates those unions into just two organizations.
The move is part of a larger trend, according to IPFW professor Andy Downs. And he says these proposals come at a time when a lot of union contracts are expiring at the same time.
“And so that eased the pressure a little bit," Downs says, "because if this had been done at a time when say only one or two contracts were coming up then those organizations could say that they were being targeted, or those unions could say they were being targeted.”
Crawford and Jehl say they introduced the measures because the city is paying higher than market rates for services. They also cite the expense of the collective bargaining process.
The proposals receive their first public hearing at tonight’s council meeting starting at 5:30 at Citizen’s Square.
