Business groups list CIR changes (Omaha Steve's union still under attack!)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20110427/NEWS97/704279885/0#business-groups-list-cir-changes

By Paul Hammel
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU

LINCOLN — The state’s three largest business organizations proposed an extensive list of changes Tuesday to a bill aimed at overhauling Nebraska’s much-maligned state labor court.

The changes would gut the proposal now before the Legislature and shift the power for deciding impasses between public employee unions and their employers to elected officials and away from the Nebraska Commission of Industrial Relations.

The list of changes also includes an apparent about-face.

Business groups had asked that the CIR utilize salaries and benefits paid in comparable private sector jobs in finding prevailing wages for public sector positions.

But a letter from the three business groups Tuesday said private employers should be removed from the comparisons.

The suggestions from the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry and chambers of commerce in Omaha and Lincoln are the first solid recommendations from the powerful business groups since the proposal, Legislative Bill 397, was unveiled four weeks ago.

The letter indicates broad disagreement with the bill as drafted by a group of state senators and attorneys that represent Nebraska cities and public employee labor unions.

FULL story at link.