Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis was joined by a number of local labor leaders and Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones to announce their new plan to create a Worker Consultation Policy—something they plan to push at Commissioners Court tomorrow.
During the press conference, Ellis insisted that this would not be the creation of a collective bargaining agreement with county employees but would simply mirror worker consultation policies implemented by various smaller jurisdictions across the state. He did, however, acknowledge that “this will be the first county to have established such a policy.”
He went on to say that this policy will create a consultation process for county employees and leadership, but he stressed that it is not allowing for collective bargaining.
Political consultant Vlad Davidiuk says he is concerned about the policy for that exact reason. “It basically creates an additional layer that is completely beholden to unions and union-owned elected officials to control the workers employed by Harris County,” he said.
He says we don’t need another layer of bureaucracy here—just more open and honest communication between elected officials and employees. Davidiuk believes this is just a power move by county Democrats.