The Memphis City Council approved a stopgap ordinance that could update the framework for concluding stalled contract negotiations between unionized city workers and the City of Memphis.
Members approved the consent agenda item on its first reading on the advice of Council Attorney Allan Wade on Tuesday, Jan. 26, during a council session held virtually as winter weather continued to impact the city.
While the ordinance was approved on first reading, the specific language is still being drafted by the council attorney, leaving the precise changes to the impasse process undetermined.
The in-the-works caption currently defines the item as an ordinance that amends the city charter’s powers. The new language would redefine “labor disputes, impasse procedures and preservation of charter powers of the City Council,” with the final phrase added during committee discussions earlier in the day.
Wade has held private discussions about the matter with council members as well as the administration of Mayor Paul Young.
The ordinance was introduced during afternoon committee meetings in hopes of settling the matter ahead of the upcoming budget season, when contract disputes must be resolved before a final budget can be completed.
A key complication emerged last year when the council approved a 5% raise for city workers through impasse proceedings, a move that challenged the administration. However, the raises also required a separate vote by the council to fund them through the budget.
Young objected to the raises, citing revenue projections. In approving the budget for the fiscal year that began July 1, 2025, the council instead approved a 3% raise that Young said the city could afford, with the promise that workers would be made whole later.
The dispute led to dueling lawsuits between the city and employee unions. The council ultimately approved the remaining 2% raise in December on Young’s recommendation, and the lawsuits are now being wound down.
Another key wrinkle in the impasse process is that any council decision favoring a union must also be funded through a separate budget vote. As a result, the council can accept a union’s final offer during impasse proceedings but decline to fund it in the budget, effectively defaulting to the administration’s proposal.
Over the next two weeks, council members are expected to flesh out the remaining details of the ordinance.
The current impasse process has been in place since 1978, following a dispute involving Memphis police and fire department personnel. After each side in a contract dispute declares an impasse, panels of three council members review the final offers submitted by both parties.
The method for selecting those panels has varied over the years, including random selection or allowing each side to choose one member, with the third agreed upon by both. Each panel must choose either the union’s final offer or the administration’s final offer and then make a recommendation to the full council, which can vote to accept the recommendation or allow the existing agreement to stand.
In some cases, parties have withdrawn impasses after reaching a compromise following the submission of final offers.
