It was about three years ago that the Oklahoma Municipal Employee Collective Bargaining Act became law.

The measure, … requires communities with a population of 35,000 or more to allow their non-uniformed municipal employees to organize for the purpose of negotiating wages, hours and other terms of employment.

But soon after , it was challenged in court by some affected employers and ruled unconstitutional because of the population provision. Rep. Marian Cooksey, a staunch opponent of the Act from the beginning, was very pleased.

“I am pleased the court recognized that this law discriminated against cities with populations of 35,000 or more,” said Cooksey, R-Edmond. “The court’s decision means cities like Edmond will be protected from the expensive, bureaucratic nightmare that would have occurred if the Oklahoma Municipal Employee Collective Bargaining Act had been left in place.”

Rep. Cooksey makes a good point. Unions tend to demand safe working conditions, something that often crimps cheap labor approaches pursued by innovative city managers like that of Elk City’s Guy Hylton:

A federal jury Monday convicted longtime Elk City Manager Guy R. Hylton Jr. on one misdemeanor count of negligent endangerment for making inmates work in a railroad depot full of asbestos.
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Chick Arthur Little, a 56-year-old city supervisor, was found guilty of making a false statement and of negligent endangerment. He was accused of lying to investigators in August 2003 by saying that the asbestos had been taken to a properly permitted landfill.

It’s interesting to note that Hylton was appointed by the governor to Oklahoma’s Prison Advisory Task Force.

U.S. attorney John C. Richter:

… Hylton and Little held a public trust to ensure that the laws established to protect the people they served were followed.

“Instead, as the jury found, they neglected their duty when they allowed the public to be exposed to danger by the release of hazardous asbestos and took advantage of inmate labor by sending them to work in the depot without protection,” said Richter.

Just imagine “the expensive, bureaucratic nightmare that would have occurred” if a union had demanded the city abide by health and safety laws when performing such work. Now, Elk City managers get a slap on the wrist, avoid the high costs of properly dealing with asbestos removal, and potentially reduce prison populations down the road.

Defense attorney Mack Martin sums things up:

“To say the least, we are absolutely ecstatic,”

I assume Mr. Martin is thinking about the lucrative business of representing Elk City in defending future lawsuits from people exposed to asbestos.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 10:18 am and is filed under News, Okie crime. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.