Peace between labor and future new arena operators? Maybe.

OKLAHOMA CITY — The voter-approved new Downtown arena hasn’t even broken ground yet, but the City is already taking steps to avoid labor disputes and operational complications once it opens.

Before last year’s vote for the new arena, Ward 2 Councilman James Cooper successfully introduced a resolution intended to guarantee that future arena employees would be hired from the city’s under-employed population and ensure them a competitive wage. 

That resolution also directed the City to explore what’s known as a “labor peace agreement,” essentially a preemptive treaty aimed at protecting both the arena workers and the future operator.

Early this month, the city council heard the findings of the working group assembled to explore and consider such an agreement.

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The full Oklahoma City Council in session Dec. 3, 2024, hears the report on the Arena Labor Peace Agreement Working Group. (B.DICKERSON/Okla City Free Press)

“Labor peace agreements are still relatively new,” Aimee Maddera, the City’s chief human resources officer and chair of the working group told the city council in presenting the group’s findings. “But they’re a growing trend.”

What is a labor peace agreement?

A labor peace agreement is an arrangement in which an employer and any union presence both agree up front to waive certain rights in exchange for a smoother, less contentious path to labor negotiations.

In most cases, that means that the employer agrees to not interfere with or deter any union campaigning or organizing in exchange for the union forfeiting its right to strike, shut down, or boycott the business.

Arturo Delgado
Arturo Delgado, LiUNA VP, Local 107, OKC has promoted the new arena as a good opportunity for working people in Oklahoma City both from a construction jobs standpoint and also for future service workers in the arena’s organization. (file, B.DICKERSON/Okla City Free Press.

The belief is that such an agreement allows for easier organization and unionizing and a clearer, more respectful process of negotiation on all sides without the fear of a strike or boycott, especially during the business’s most integral and important times.

In the case of the future arena, that means the NBA season and Oklahoma City Thunder games.

“You don’t want people going on strikes during the Playoffs,” Cooper said from the dais. “This is a way to help make sure that doesn’t happen.”

What’s in it for the employer?

If passed as a binding resolution by the City, a labor peace agreement for the new arena would mean that whatever company secures the operator rights will be required to allow union campaigning and potential organization of employees without fighting or pushing back against those efforts.

That’s in addition to the already passed resolution requiring that arena employees be hired through an intermediary and be selected from “underemployed” populations such as the unhoused, the disabled, and those in recovery, a population that the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber says makes up more than 30% of the Metro.

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Craig Freeman, City Manager for the City of Oklahoma City (L) listens to Mayor David Holt making comments during the City Council meeting on Dec. 3, 2024. (B.DICKERSON/Okla City Free Press)

All of those requirements combined are expected to result in higher operating costs for the new arena.

“It could potentially increase labor costs,” Maddera told Free Press by phone following the city council presentation. “We can’t really quantify it right now, but when we asked our labor partners at the table, they said they would typically see 10% higher wages [than with no agreement like this one.]”

So if an operator knows that they’ll be forfeiting direct hiring, allowing union activity and organizing, and will be required to pay higher wages and higher operating costs, then what’s in a labor peace agreement for the employer?

“It’s just going to be the fact that they have a product and schedule that’s predictable and knowing that, in peak times, they would not have protected labor activity going on,” Maddera explained. “And that might be during the Playoffs or key games or even key concerts, because it’s not just the Thunder that will be operating there.”

What’s in it for the workers?

Under the already passed resolution, future arena employees will be guaranteed competitive wages and beneficial hiring practices, but if a labor peace agreement is passed, they’ll also be forfeiting their right to strike as a union, often the most powerful weapon in a union arsenal.

So what’s in it for the workers?

“The working theory from the labor representatives in the working group,” Maddera said, “is that under a union, you have better wages better benefits, and a better work environment, and you have the extra protection that a union would help bargain on your behalf.”

She also explained that a labor peace agreement doesn’t entirely rule out a strike action under specific circumstances.

OKC City Council
Tim O’Connor, president of the Central Oklahoma Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, steps up to the podium at the OKC City Council meeting on Sept. 26, 2023, to speak in favor of the new arena proposal and of the labor-favorable aspects. (B.DICKERSON/Okla City Free Press)

Under the National Labor Relations Act, arena employees would still retain their right to strike or boycott until there is a labor union in place. The peace agreement would only take effect once an official union is organized and recognized.

But even under a union, employees could still exercise their organized power during times of contract negotiations.

“It’ll really come down to the finite language in the final resolution, but a lot of the time, these agreements say ‘while there is an active contract,’” Maddera explained. “So if the operator’s contract with the arena or the union expires and they’re still at the bargaining table, it doesn’t prevent a strike happening then.”

Vote and opposition

Though Cooper has touted the potential benefits and protections of a labor peace agreement – both for the workers and the employer – and has repeatedly pointed to similar successful stories such as the operation of the new Milwaukee Bucks arena, not everyone is expected to be on board. 

Maddera said that’s likely to come down to opinions on unions themselves.

“Philosophically,” she told Free Press, “you’re going to have folks that are pro-union and think that they’re beneficial, and others that think if you have good management and good operations, that you don’t need a third party at the table along with the workers and the employers, because unions are a business and they do make profit off of their employees’ dues.”

With the working group’s findings presented to the city council and city, labor, and industry leaders all better aware of what a labor peace agreement would mean, the next step is for Cooper to introduce the agreement as a resolution for a city council vote.

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Ward 2 City Councilman James Cooper comments on the Labor Peace Agreement idea during the Oklahoma City Council meeting. (B.DICKERSON/Okla City Free Press)

There’s no word yet on when exactly that will be, but at the December 3rd city council meeting he alluded to “next month.”

Cooper would have preferred it happened more quickly.

“I thought that the presentation should happen the same day as a vote on the labor peace agreement,” he said from the dais on December 3rd, “but our good friend, the Mayor, thought ‘let’s give people time to think about it.’”


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Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.