The Metro Council appoints the Louisville Labor Management Committee (hereafter, the Committee) to function as follows:
(A) Whenever a question arises as to whether a union represents the employees of any unit, division, department, or craft of Metro Government, or a question arises between Metro Government and a labor union as to whether a union represents the employees of a unit, division, department, or craft of Metro Government, 30% of the employees by petition (or in the event a second petition is received while a prior petition is pending, 30% of the employees), a petitioning union, or the Mayor may request the Committee to conduct a hearing to determine appropriate collective bargaining units or to resolve any question of representation presented to the Committee.
(1) The Committee shall conduct such hearing in the following manner:
(a) The Committee shall utilize its Executive Director or its own list of impartial arbitrators or obtain an arbitrator from the Kentucky Labor Cabinet, Labor Management Relations and Mediation, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, or the American Arbitration Association.
(b) The Committee shall submit a sufficient number of names to the parties involved so that each party can eliminate two names and one arbitrator is left.
(c) Thereafter, the arbitrator shall conduct a hearing to determine the question presented. The hearing shall be a due process hearing with full right of Metro Government and any union(s) with a 30% proven interest to present argument, briefs and witnesses who shall be subject to cross-examination. The factors upon which appropriate bargaining units shall be based shall include, but not be limited to, the following: community of interests of employees; wages, hours and other working conditions of the employees; the history of collective bargaining; the administrative structure of Metro Government as employer; and the efficiency of operations of Metro Government as employer.
(2) The determination of the arbitrator shall be reported to the Metro Council within 30 days after the final date of the hearing. The Metro Council shall accept the arbitrator's recommendations unless the Mayor requests the recommendations be placed on the next regular Metro Council meeting docket and a three-fourths majority of the entire Metro Council find the arbitrator's recommendations to be arbitrary or capricious.
(3) The Committee may thereafter cause to be conducted a secret ballot election among the employees of the appropriate bargaining unit to determine whether or not they desire to be represented by a labor organization for the purpose of collective bargaining. Any labor organization which confirms by valid authorization cards that 30% of the employees in a unit request such labor organization to represent(s) those employees, shall be deemed to have satisfied the proper showing of interest and shall be represented upon the ballot. Failure to obtain the signatures of 30% of the Metro Government employees in the unit shall bar any labor organization from being on the ballot. In addition, the option of "no union" shall appear on the ballot except as hereinafter set out. A majority of said employees voting shall be required to certify any labor organization as the exclusive representative for any unit. In the event there are two or more labor organizations represented on the ballot in addition to "no union", and a labor organization or ("no union") receives a simple majority of the number of votes cast, then that result shall be certified and there shall be no run-off election.
(4) The Committee may conduct the election or it may request the Kentucky Labor Cabinet or any other properly constituted labor-management committee conduct the election.
(B) If such election determines that a majority of the voting employees desire to be represented by a union or other organization of employees, the Committee shall present the findings to the Metro Council, which shall recognize the organization as the exclusive bargaining representative of the unit, division, department or craft of employees.
(C) The Committee shall have authority, subject to approval of the Metro Council, to grant temporary recognition to a union or other organization of eligible employees which can show that it represents a majority of the eligible employees in a particular unit of Metro Government.
(D) No more than one such election (excluding a run-off election) for any unit of employees shall be conducted in any one calendar year. Once a labor organization is recognized, such recognition shall continue from year to year thereafter. However, at the end of a collective bargaining agreement if another labor organization, employee association or employees of that bargaining unit presents individually signed authorization cards which requests an election from at least 50% of the Metro Government employees in a previously recognized unit, the Metro Council shall hold a new election as to the continued maintenance of the existing collective bargaining representative, labor organization or employee association. The Metro Council shall forward a copy of each such individually signed and dated authorization cards to the existing collective bargaining representative, labor organization or employee association. Thereafter, the Committee shall proceed in accordance with the election procedure set forth in subsection (A). Said cards must be filed between the 90th day and 60th day prior to the expiration of any collective bargaining agreement. Failure to adhere to this timeframe shall serve as a bar for this procedure to be used. Any election to replace the recognized exclusive representative of the bargaining unit shall occur between the 60th and the 30th day prior to the expiration of any collective bargaining agreement.
(1994 Jeff. Code, § 35.11) (Jeff. Ord. 6-1986, adopted and effective 5-13-1986; Jeff. Am. Ord. 32-1995, adopted and effective 11-28-1995; Jeff. Am. Ord. 6-1998, adopted and effective 3-10-1998; Jeff. Am. Ord. 3-2002, adopted and effective 1-8-2002; Jeff. Am. Ord. 8-2002, adopted and effective 2-12-2002; Lou Metro Am. Ord. No. 56-2005, approved 4-29-2005)