Bargaining

The governor proposed legislation yesterday that would bring collective-bargaining rights to state employees -- and immediately drew fire from lawmakers worried that it would hurt Maryland's budget and its business climate.The bill would allow unions representing 40,000 to 50,000 government workers to negotiate salaries, hours and working conditions with management.Although it would not affect private employers, the measure could discourage businesses from locating in the state by promoting the impression that Maryland is too pro-labor, some Republicans and key Democrats said.

Ravens officials made it clear at this week's NFL meetings that their primary focus over the next month is not what remains on the free-agent market. With 12 selections in next month's draft, the organization is busy evaluating college players who will help replenish a roster that has been hit hard by free agency, releases and retirements. But with a little over $7 million of remaining salary-cap space, the Ravens are still looking to add a couple of free agents, hoping to find a couple of bargains that will help fill some holes.

Maryland's largest teachers union scored a significant legislative victory last night, winning approval from the House of Delegates for a bill to let them bargain such issues as curriculum and classroom assignments. "This is going to open a greater opportunity for the professionals in schools to have a voice in the policies set by school boards," said Patricia A. Foerster, president of the 54,000-member Maryland State Teachers Association. The MSTA is seeking the bill to allow -- but not require -- local school boards and unions to negotiate a broader range of issues.

Walking through a giant hall in the Baltimore Convention Center, Susan Johnson and Sherry Mills stopped to admire a bronze-and-steel sculpture with water cascading out of it. "I need this," Mills said. "You may want to come around this side first," Johnson said, nodding at a sticker announcing the water feature's $18,000 price. The sculpture by San Francisco artist Michael Szabo was among the many pricey items at the American Craft Council show this weekend. Others among the 650 crafts people at the event were showing high-end jewelry, paintings, furniture and glassware, with prices reaching into the tens of thousands of dollars.

Maryland's teachers unions won a big victory last night in their quest for expanded power in collective bargaining, securing Senate passage of a measure designed to give them more say in such areas as classroom assignments and curriculum. The bill - pushed by Gov. Parris N. Glendening as part of his legislative package - now goes to the House of Delegates, where it is expected to pass easily. Last year, the House overwhelmingly supported a broader version of the legislation, only to see it die in a Senate committee without coming to a vote.

ATLANTA - Saying that AirTran Airways has been dragging its feet, the discount carrier's pilots have asked federal mediators to step into the stalled labor talks. The National Pilots Association, which represents about 1,100 pilots at AirTran, asked for help from the National Mediation Board after initiating talks late last year. "In more than seven months, AirTran management has only made it to the bargaining table for a total of six and a half days of talks," said the union's president, Allen Philpot.

Disgruntled with their just-signed three-year contract, a number of Anne Arundel County deputy sheriffs are considering dumping the Teamsters and switching to a different bargaining agent. Deputies estimate that about half of the 56 deputies are dissatisfied enough with the Teamster-negotiated pact that they are willing to hear from other unions. Those deputies are furious that while the higher-paid county police and firefighters won hefty double-digit percentage raises, they received an average 7 percent raise.

Players ruled the business of sports through most of the 1990s and early 2000s. In baseball, not even a canceled World Series could force the players union to accept a salary cap. Then, Alex Rodriguez became the $252 million man. In basketball, stars signed some of the biggest contracts in sports history, with rookies becoming multimillionaires before ever taking a dribble. In hockey, the average salary more than tripled between 1995 and 2004, even as the league's franchises reported hundreds of millions in annual losses.

Carroll school employee unions are preparing for what are expected to be the most difficult contract negotiations in years, after the school board cut pay raises from next year's budget and then tried unsuccessfully to change the rules of bargaining. The school board's divisive decision to back out of tentative contract agreements with the system's 2,800 employees, followed by the board's attempt to move contract renegotiations into open meetings, set an ugly stage from which contract talks must resume, union leaders said.

NEW YORK -- Apartment house owners and the union representing doormen, porters and handymen reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract yesterday, averting a strike that would have left front desks, elevators and garbage in the hands of tenants or temporary workers.Union leaders and officials from the owners' bargaining group, the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations, said that wages and other economic issues were the main sticking point in the all-night bargaining session.

Happy Black Friday. It's the biggest shopping day of the year and at this hour, you're likely either running through the aisle of a department store to snag that $99 high-definition TV or you're at home laughing at the thought of it. First off, some full disclosure here. I was among the masses who spent the early morning hours chasing doorbusters and trying to get a leg up on holiday shopping. Part of it is to get some deals - or at least the idea of them - and the other part is the experience.

Commentator John Gehring asserts that Catholic hospitals and universities would not have to pay for birth control coverage for their employees under an accommodation with the Obama administration that requires insurance companies to pick up the tab ("Finding common ground," Nov. 12). This is not true. Neither the Affordable Care Act nor the finalized implementing regulations contain any such provision. Rather, that arrangement is discussed in the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published by the Department of Health and Human Services in March, which is not law. It is true that the president held a press conference to announce the proposed compromise, commonly referred to as the "accommodation.

With the election behind us, I had hoped our politicians would get beyond games of chicken. No such luck. First, you need to understand that the upcoming game of chicken isn't about how much or when we cut the budget deficit, or even whether the upcoming "fiscal cliff" poses a danger to the economy. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office warned last week that the automatic tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to start in January amount to too much deficit reduction, too soon.

A Taste of Hampden, the popular annual benefit for the Hampden Family Center, is Thursday, Oct. 25, from 6-9 p.m. Tickets are $30 each, with all proceeds earmarked for the center. As the number of great restaurants in Hampden increases, this event becomes more than a good charity event, but a bargain for foodies. You get to sample the offerings from a number of Hampden's award-winning restaurants, you get to enjoy tasty beverages, and you get to hang out with some awesome folks.

Anne Arundel County's public safety unions won a major court victory Friday, when Maryland's highest court threw out a County Council measure that gutted binding arbitration. "This is a victory for all of our public safety agencies," said O'Brien Atkinson, president of the county's largest police union, the Fraternal Order of Police chapter. The county has nine public safety collective-bargaining groups. In a 6-1 ruling, the Court of Appeals ruled that a 2002 change to the county's charter that provided for binding arbitration is legal, and that a law adopted last year that effectively undid it is not. "As a politician, you can't come in and undo with the stroke of a pen what the citizens voted on," said Craig Oldershaw, president of the largest union in the Fire Department.

When county park rangers decided to form a union of 14 people this year, Anne Arundel County Councilman Jerry Walker decided he had reached his limit. Thirteen unions, he said, are more than enough. "At this point, any nine, 10 or 11 people could get together and decide to bargain collectively with the county," said Walker, a Republican from Gambrills. "We've got three groups just for the police. Why should we sit down with three government groups when we could sit down with one?"

John Sweeney, national president of the AFL-CIO, will be the featured speaker tonight at an East Baltimore rally for members of the Service Employees International Union, who are bargaining for new contracts for about 2,500 workers at four area hospitals. Robert Moore, president of the union's District 1199E-DC, said the union views the rally as "a kickoff to set the tone" among members for bargaining and a way to "reach out to nonunion workers." The union is seeking to expand its membership at the hospitals where it already has contracts, as well as to gain bargaining rights at other hospitals.

RYE BROOK, N.Y. -- Negotiating teams in the Major League Baseball strike finally returned to the bargaining table yesterday, and both sides expressed hope that their six-hour discussion will be a prelude to more serious talks.Special mediator William J. Usery brought the bargaining units together at the Doral Arrowwood Conference Center outside New York for a series of meetings that could last through the weekend. No progress was reported but -- unlike previous attempts at negotiation -- both sides appeared eager to meet again today.

With Labor Day still a few weeks away, the time to make Thanksgiving travel plans seems as far off as the Curiosity rover. This year, however, if you snooze, you lose. Airfares are climbing with no leveling-off in sight. The cheapest fares likely are the ones you're seeing now. And if you hope Amtrak will supply a cheaper alternative, forget it. The smallest sliver of promise is that airlines over the next 10 days may offer lower fares on a meager number of seats for Thanksgiving week - fringe-time seats such as the morning bleary-eye flight or the red-eye express.

Rarely in history has the cause of a major economic problem been so clear, yet have so few been willing to see it. The major reason this recovery has been so anemic is not Europe's debt crisis. It's not, as right-wing economists tell us, because taxes are too high on corporations and the rich, safety nets are too generous to the needy, and regulations on business are too onerous. It's not even, as some liberals contend, because the Obama administration hasn't spent enough on a temporary Keynesian stimulus.