Two paragraphs in the city of Brownsville’s new Employee Handbook are drawing fire from some quarters, including the Cameron County Democratic Party, for their stance toward collective bargaining.
The handbook, approved by the city commission Jan. 18 and in effect as of March 4, contains 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 Brownsville attorney John Shergold, complained about what they characterized as the passage’s discriminatory and inaccurate statements regarding unions.
In addition, in a June 7 letter to the mayor and commission, Cameron County Democratic Party Chairman Jared Hockema wrote that the language in question “may be a violation of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935.”
Page 7 of the city’s new Employee Handbook reads: “Except for our Police Department and Fire Department, the City of Brownsville is a non-union employer. It is our goal to stay that way. By working together and dealing fairly and directly with our employees, we have been able to build a positive work environment supported by mutual respect and trust, without outsiders.
“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, Hockema wrote 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.
Hockema said that while he recognizes 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.”
City Attorney Victor Flores said he believes a consultant hired by the city to help create the new handbook may have inserted the two paragraphs and that the final document, a summary of which was presented to the full commission by a committee, was not properly considered by commissioners despite vetting by the committee. He said he plans to present the question as a workshop item on June 21, the day of the commission’s next regular meeting.
“I’ve been trying to kind of put the pieces together,” Flores said. “I’ve actually reached out to the consultant to give me background as to how that version got in there. When I present on June 21, I want to provide that information to the city. … I know for a fact that the first draft that was drafted by the committee … was taken to the consultant, and the consultant came back with something that was significantly different.”
He said he’ll advise commissioners that if they want to retain the language regarding unions, it should be adopted as a formal amendment to the handbook, though Flores said he’s not aware of any support on the commission for that option.
“If they don’t want to, that, I believe, is an administrative fix, removing that provision,” he said.
Flores conceded the language in question may not 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 he’s reviewing the process to see if any other handbook items weren’t handled correctly.
“If there are other provisions that weren’t properly considered, then it’s my opinion they need to be formally acted upon by the city commission,” he said.
