General Assembly staffers can't legally unionize, says organization helping them unionize

The public employees union that has been working with Delaware General Assembly staffers in their organizing effort now says those staffers can't legally form a union.

AFSCME Council 81 is citing a recent letter to its executive director, Mike Begatto. In the letter, the law firm hired to evaluate the union effort says that there is not "a successful path available for the union."

Legislative staff are "exempt from classified service, thus raising a question about whether the Public Employment Relations Board could ever establish a bargaining obligation for the General Assembly," reads the Feb. 19 letter from Philadelphia-based law firm O'Donoghue & O'Donoghue.

Even if they were able to find a way "past this hurdle," the letter says, there is a "clear separations of powers issue" and "we would be asking the judicial branch to impose a requirement upon the legislative branch through the executive branch."

Read more: https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/politics/2020/02/24/delaware-general-assembly-staffers-cant-unionize-union-lawyer-says/4858209002/