Politics & Government

County Board Trying to Arrange Controversial Meeting to Renew Largest Union's Contract

Some members of the board are trying to beat the State Supreme Court's ruling on collective bargaining.

The Milwaukee County Board will hold its second special meeting in six days Thursday, this time to possibly renew the contract of the county’s largest labor union, according to Milwaukee County 11th District Supervisor Mark Borkowski, who represents Greenfield.

The board met June 10 to discuss taking up the contract of District Council 48 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents about 3,500 county workers, in an effort to keep collective bargaining in place for those employees. But some board members did not want to vote on the contract and through reconsideration, requested that the board look at the contract at its next regularly scheduled meeting slated for June 23.

By then, however, it is expected that the State Supreme Court will have ruled on the legality of the collective bargaining portion of the budget repair.

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Yesterday, however, the first vice chairman of the board Michael Mayo, over the objections of chairman Lee Holloway, told Borkowski he is closing in on the necessary 10 signatures required to call a special meeting – Borkowski said his isn’t one of them – to force a vote Thursday.

“The votes are there,” to renew the contract, Borkowski said. “If we vote to go along with the contract and stuff, that’s going to buy DC48 ‘x’ number of years more that they wouldn’t be under the constraints of what (Governor Scott) Walker wants. That’s what the high stakes are all about."

Find out what's happening in Greenfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to Borkowski, County Executive Chris Abele is in support of extending DC48’s contract and has urged the County Board to support and pass it as well.

“I suspect (Mayo) will find the signatures,” Borkowski said, referring to the special meeting. "We never have special county board meetings and to have two within a week’s time is totally unprecedented.

“We all thought we dodged a bullet because through reconsideration until the next board meeting, by then the state budget will have been voted on and it will be null and void. It won’t matter. But you move it up to this Thursday and the stakes have changed.”


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