Collective Bargaining Bill Gets First Hearing in Assembly Government Affairs Committee

Assemblywoman Sarah Peters introduces AB224

The first hearing for AB224, better known as the Collective Bargaining for NSHE Professional Employees Bill, took place before the Assembly Committee on Government Affairs on Thursday, March 9. The bill's main sponsor, Assemblywoman Sarah Peters introduced the bill to the committee, joined by NFA State President Kent Ervin, and UNLV-NFA President Doug Unger who testified on the bill's content and purpose. Lawmakers sought clarification on the relationship between collective bargaining for faculty and tenure. While AFT officer Maryanne Salm explained that tenure is an individual right designed to protect faculty from undue influence, while collective bargaining seeks to protect broad categories of rights for tenured and non-tenured alike. Unger added that only 35% of NSHE faculty are tenured and described categories such as dispute resolution and workload that are not addressed under the tenure process.

The Nevada System of Higher Education submitted written testimony indicating their neutrality on the bill, but questioned its constitutionality based on the Board of Regents' status in the Nevada Constitution. NSHE claims the bill interferes with the authority granted to it under the constitution, but Kevin Powers, a senior member of the Legislative Council Bureau's legal staff, explained that settled case law in Nevada and several other states with similar constitutional structures for higher education has determined that collective bargaining falls outside of NSHE's constitutional authority over education and is within the legislature's purview for governing employment law. He also pointed out that state laws established for classified employees in 2019 also apply to NSHE. 

More than 20 individuals rose to speak in support of the bill. In addition to several NSHE employees, representatives of multiple employee unions from both the public and private sectors voiced their support as well. Video of the AB224 hearing may be viewed starting at 9:52:30 at the Nevada Legislature's video archive.