The Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act (HR 980) has attracted little media attention, which is unfortunate because it provides a federal mandate for union control of every first responder in the nation.
The bill, which requires all state and local public safety workers to join unions, was quietly rammed through the House of Representatives in July on suspended rules that barred floor debate and permitted no amendments.
If it passes the Senate, President Bush should get out his veto pen, because this coercive power grab would effectively put Big Labor in charge of the government workers most critical to coping with terrorist attacks like 9/11, natural disasters such as hurricanes and tornadoes, and man-made calamities as in the California wildfires.
Not only is forcing collective bargaining down the throats of state and local governments a blatant violation of federalism, it trashes the basic constitutional workplace rights of public safety professionals. They and they alone should decide whether they want union representation, and they must remain free to reject unionization if they choose.
The Heritage Foundation estimates the measure would cause havoc with 26,000 volunteer fire departments, many in rural areas that cannot afford to pay higher union wages. State laws in Virginia and North Carolina that specifically ban public-sector bargaining because of the unacceptable risks it poses to public safety would also be overturned if this bill becomes law.
Although the measure contains a standard “no-strike” provision, Greg Mourad of the National Right To Work Committee says such clauses are routinely ignored. After all, threatening to walk off the job is the main method unions use to get their way, and union negotiators almost always insist on amnesty for strikers.
Strike threats force factory owners and other private-sector employers to the negotiating table, but governments at the local and state level must recognize economic realities.
But when every public safety worker is under union control, there’s no limit to what unions can and inevitably will demand. Too many government officials will simply cave to the unions and raise taxes to pay for their demands.
U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, saw what happened when public safety employees unionized in his state: “Prior to collective bargaining, we had a cooperative relationship. It instantly became adversarial between management and labor.”
Anything that fosters conflict between police and fire chiefs and their employees is bad for the public. That’s why negotiating pay and benefits for first responders is best left to the local communities they serve.
