Issue Brief
HB362: Transparency In Collective
Bargaining Process
Representative Daniel McCay is sponsoring legislation requiring
collective bargaining meetings between public employers and public
employee labor organizations to be open to the public. The Utah One
Coalition is opposed to this bill. The legislation is unnecessary.
Utah One Coalition Position:
•
Other public negotiations are not open to the public (i.e. bids for
consulting firms or contracts). In most cases by election, the public has
entrusted a public figure to negotiate in the public’s best interest. It is only
when there is a final package that there is a public vote on the deal and the
details are revealed. The same should apply to employee bargaining
agreements.
o In the case of Utah school districts, the constituencies of both the
school board and the employee association can already provide input on
negotiations and vote on a tentative agreement. Elected school boards,
representing their constituencies, are entrusted to negotiate and their final
decisions are made in a public meeting. Elected education association
leaders are entrusted to negotiate for their members. Those members vote
on whether or not to accept the contract and have an opportunity to
convince their fellow members to vote against an agreement, if they wish.
Other public entities follow similar procedures.
o The Salt Lake City unions also require ratification by their
membership. The city communicates with the respective department heads
regarding negotiations before signing off on language.
•
The Utah Open and Public Meetings Act allows closed meetings to
be held to discuss strategies for collective bargaining. Clearly, the state
recognized the importance of discussing negotiations in a non-public
setting.
•
If citizens want information or want to provide input about
negotiations, they can contact elected officials (mayors, school board
members, etc.) and make their views known. They can also make a request
through the Government Records and Management Act (GRAMA). If
association members want information or want to provide input about
negotiations, they can contact their elected leaders. Any citizen or
employee dissatisfied with the results of negotiations can act through the
ballot box to change leadership.
•
The trust, understanding, and mutual respect essential to a
productive bargaining relationship are built up over time. This allows each
new negotiation to be smoother and more efficient. In closed negotiations,
all participants enjoy the freedom to bring ideas to the table without the
fear of newspapers dissecting their ideas. All participants must be able to
exchange the frank views of their constituencies as they explore and
February
2013
resolve the issues
that will ultimately benefit
them as27,
well
as the public at
large.
Page 2 – Issue Brief – HB 362

Bargaining is a process that requires confidential communications, but the exchange of
information in good faith and with full disclosure. The Utah Rules of Evidence and the basic principles
of bargaining, negotiation and mediation REQUIRE certain conversations be confidential to protect and
preserve the integrity of that process (whether it be bargaining, negotiation or mediation).

Negotiation discussions often include confidential information about individuals, such as
disciplinary issues, liability, financial and budgetary situations, and possibly even proprietary concerns.
Confidentiality in these matters is paramount to sustaining trust in a bargaining environment.

Closed meetings encourage innovation. Employees and their management counterparts bring
their best thinking to the bargaining table. But if they worry that their idea may immediately end up on
the front page of the newspaper, they may be reluctant to try something new.

Closed meetings eliminate the temptation to play to the public, which can lead to a refusal to
compromise and draw out the bargaining process longer than it needs to. In addition, the parties may
have to spend more time spent explaining ideas to the public at large rather than time spent solving
problems. Furthermore, ideas or statements taken out of context could lead to public misunderstandings,
which in turn can lead to unjustified, negative impressions of both parties.

As a right-to-work state, bargaining occurs through good-faith and in recognition of clear
benefits to both the employer and the employee. This bill creates an overly burdensome process which
will likely result in the elimination of good-faith negotiations.

This legislation will create an additional cost to taxpayers as public employers meet the mandates
for making audio recordings of the proceedings and making those recordings available to the public.

Once the bargaining process begins meetings may be convened, adjourned in order to confer and
then reconvened a few hours later. The requirement for a public written 24 hour notice prior to any
bargaining meeting eliminates flexibility for conducting bargaining in a timely and cost efficient
manner.
February 27, 2013