ANTI-UNION CITY HANDBOOK STATEMENTS REMOVED

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

This is the way a bad idea dies, not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Without comment from City of Brownsville Mayor Trey Mendez or any of the commissioners, they voted unanimously Tuesday to remove two paragraphs of anti-union language that had "somehow" been included in the city's employee handbook.

The item on Tuesday's agenda attracted little attention except for its inclusion in the "presentations" section of the agenda titled simply "City of Brownsville Employee Handbook Update" presented by City Attorney Victor Flores.

Flores had said previously that he believed a "consultant" was responsible for the offensive wording, but on Tuesday said simply that the handbook had not been "properly vetted."

The handbook, approved by the city commission Jan. 18 and in effect as of March 4, contained the language in its Employer Relations section. 

During the public comment period of the commission’s June 7 regular meeting, two members of the public, Brownsville ISD special education teacher Patrick Hammes and local attorney John Shergold, representing the Cameron County Democratic Party addressed the city commission on the content of the anti-union wording.

"Our success is based on constant interchange of ideas, operating flexibility, and individual initiative, all of which could be hampered by a union, and thus detrimental to the City and our employees. Unions have made no contribution to our progress in the past, and they are not needed for the progress that we will make in the future."

Echoing the concerns of Hammes and Shergold, Cameron County Democratic Chairman Jared Hockema also wrote a letter June 7 to the commission that the CCDP "strongly supports the right of all workers to organize, and to work in an environment that is free of coercion."

"In fact, the American labor movement has played a pivotal role in the founding and development of our country, and in making our society stronger and more just," he wrote.

In addition, Hockema wrote that the language in question "may be a violation of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935."

Hockema said that while he recognized the city's need to balance the interests of its employees with those of residents when making decisions affecting collective bargaining, "these statements go much too far, and do not serve the interests of the public." He asked that the commission revise the handbook and "strike these false and unconscionable anti-union statements."

Flores has conceded the language in question may not have even be legal. Texas is a right-to-work state, meaning that in the public sector as well as in the private sector, "an individual may not be denied employment because of the individual's membership or nonmembership in a labor organization," according to the state Government Code.

Flores said nothing of this Tuesday, but merely presented the sanitized handbook with the offending paragraphs removed which were approved without comment by the mayor and city commissioners.