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Senate Takes Step to Approve Bargaining Rights for Public Safety Officers |
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The U.S. Senate today moved a step closer to approving legislation that would protect the collective bargaining rights of tens of thousands of firefighters, police officers, emergency medical technicians and other public safety officers.
By a 69–29 vote, the Senate killed a filibuster led by several extreme anti-worker Republican senators against the workers’ rights bill. Eighteen Republicans joined all Democrats in backing the move to end the filibuster. The vote on final passage is expected later this week.
Some 20 states do not fully protect the bargaining rights of firefighters, police officers and other first responders. Two states—Virginia and North Carolina—prohibit public safety employees from collectively bargaining.
With final passage near certain, the only thing that stands in the first responders’ path to securing the workplace rights most other workers enjoy is a veto threat from the Bush administration. But today’s veto-proof vote, coupled with last July’s 314–97 House vote, provides more than the two-thirds majority needed in each chamber to overturn a veto.
Says Fire Fighters (IAFF) President Harold Schaitberger:
More than 80,000 of our brother and sister firefighters in more than 20 states do not currently enjoy basic employment rights. This bill will ensure that every firefighter has the right to collectively bargain.
The bill, the Public Safety Employee-Employer Cooperation Act of 2007 (H.R. 980), guarantees first responders:
- The right to join a union.
- The right to have their union recognized by their employer.
- The right to bargain collectively over hours, wages and terms and conditions of employment.
- A mediation or arbitration process for resolving an impasse in negotiations.
- Enforcement of the bill’s provisions through the courts.
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) says:
Fairness means firefighters and police officers having a voice at the table in life-and-death discussions about their work. They know best how to do their jobs effectively, efficiently and safely. Everyone benefits when they’re given the chance to share that knowledge at the bargaining table.
But last week in a letter to Senate leaders, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff wrote they will suggest that President Bush veto the bill. In addition to the veto threat, the trio wrote that if first responders were allowed to join unions, it would hinder the nation’s ability to respond to terrorist and other threats.
Says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney:
This claim impugns the integrity of first responders who risked and sacrificed their lives on 9/11 and in the aftermath of Katrina. Every one of the 343 firefighters who perished at Ground Zero was a card-carrying union member.
In a May 12 response to the letter by Chao, Mukasey and Chertoff, Schaitberger said:
Your decision to attack the integrity of America’s firefighters cannot be left unanswered. Claiming that the legislation will hinder the nation’s ability to respond to terrorist attacks is both factually inaccurate and offensive. Every one of the 343 firefighters who perished at Ground Zero on September 11, 2001, was a card-carrying union member who enjoyed collective bargaining rights. Most of the responders to the horrific tragedy were not even on duty that day. They simply did what firefighters always do: They put their own safety at risk to save the lives of others.
The same is true of the courageous responders to Hurricane Katrina. Despite losing their own homes and fearing for the security of their own families, union firefighters waded into the toxic floodwaters for days on end searching for survivors. To suggest that their collectively bargained contracts hindered these life-saving efforts flies in the face of reality.
Says Kennedy:
Collective bargaining is good for our national security, and it’s good for public safety officers. These heroic men and women deserve more than just our gratitude and respect. They deserve the right to be treated fairly on the job.
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In my 36 or so years in the labor movement I have seen cops attack picket lines with a vigorous fury. I have also seen cops who were members of a union ignore our blocking scab driven Greyhound buses during the ATU strike in the early 90’s!
I believe most cops and firefighters are decent, hard working men and women who deserve respect and dignity on their jobs. The only way to attain that respect and dignity is to organize a union and bargain collectively!
You conservative voting cops and firefighters should take note just how little you are worth in the eyes of the neo-cons that hate organized labor!!
Though I am not a member of a Union, I was raised in a Union household. My father was a Union Member for over forty years before he retired and paid his dues until his death. Most people today only hear the negative about Unions. They don’t realize Unions, through COLLECTIVE BARGAINING, is reason they have the benefit packages they have today. Most employers don’t want to deal with Unions so they’ll give benefits and concessions to keep them out. To VETO the COLLECTIVE BARGAINING bill is just plain STUPID and those who propose doing it are the SAME. Tne Police, Fire, and EMS departments here in Baton Rouge have Bargaining Rights. Even when the contract ended they STAYED ON THE JOB until a new contract was reached under our current Mayor. This didn’t go on for days, weeks or months; it went on years. No FIRST RESPONDER, I know of, would walk off and leave his post during a Terrorist Attack. If there was some type of action, they would all come in and do the job that’s needed to PROTECT, SAVE AND DEFEND THE CITIZENS OF THIS CITY, STATE AND NATION.
Labor Secretary Elaine Chao’s letter just has to make you laugh when the DOL’s mission as per the web site is:
The Department of Labor fosters and promotes the welfare of the job seekers, wage earners, and retirees of the United States by improving their working conditions, advancing their opportunities for profitable employment, protecting their retirement and health care benefits, helping employers find workers, strengthening free collective bargaining, and tracking changes in employment, prices, and other national economic measurements. In carrying out this mission, the Department administers a variety of Federal labor laws including those that guarantee workers’ rights to safe and healthful working conditions; a minimum hourly wage and overtime pay; freedom from employment discrimination; unemployment insurance; and other income support.
Iguess “strengthening free collective bargaining” is out the window if your a Fire Fighter
BUSH, CHAO, MUKASEY AND CHERTOFF ARE STUPID LITTLE PEOPLE. They represent the very worst of the Republican party. They just don’t want Americans to have any rights at all, unless we can pay for it.
According to the Associated Press this Bill has been dropped for the time being, from The NY Times (5/15/08):
Sources say, that while there is even a strong bipartisan support(11 GOP co-sponsors), there is also fierce opposition, particularly from Enzi, DeMint and Vitter who have essentially been filibustering by amendment.