The speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives invoked a rarely used privilege in a subcommittee Wednesday to assure the passage of an anti-collective bargaining bill. House Speaker Beth Harwell was the seventh vote to get the measure past a six-six tie in the House Finance Subcommittee.

The bill is the amended version of a measure that originally would have completed stripped the Tennessee Education Association of the right to engage in collective bargaining with local school boards. Speaker Harwell is the one who brokered the
softer version of restrictions on unions.

Republican House Leader Gerald McCormick had a close-up view of the vote as a member of the subcommittee.

“…and I think you have a couple of members, who are Republicans, on that committee, who feel like it’s not in the best interests of their districts to restrict collective bargaining. And I think they voted their conscience, and our rules say the speaker of the House can come in and break a tie vote, and I think that’s what she did today.”

The actual tally was six Republicans for the measure and six Democrats against. Representative Mike Harrison, a Republican from Rogersville, abstained. That created the tie that Harwell had to break.

On Tuesday, Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey played a similar role, breaking the tie in a committee vote on a proposal to require the election of all judges in Tennessee.

The collective bargaining bill, now beyond the Finance Subcommittee speed bump, is expected to pass easily in the House Finance Committee and go on to the House floor. The Senate version is also clear to go to the floor.

WEB EXTRA
The bill is HB 130 Maggart/SB 113 Johnson.

The House and Senate versions are different. The House version has been amended to soften the original intent, which was to take away the right of collective bargaining from the Tennessee Education Association. The House version is here.

That version allows collective bargaining to continue, but restricts some of the issues that may be negotiated and makes it easier for competing professional organizations to come in and sign up members in opposition to TEA.

The Senate version is closer to this original, hard-line version.

McCormick, the majority party leader in the House, says his side of the General Assembly has a bill they can work with.

“As amended, I think the governor’s comfortable with it, and I think most of the people in our caucus are comfortable with it, and …it’ll have the required 50 votes or more on the House floor, assuming it’ll make it through the committee system and to the House floor.”

Left unanswered is whether the Senate will go along with the new, softer collective bargaining limits.