House Democrats Look to Backdoor Mandatory Unionization Provisions
Legislation that would force states to collectively bargain with public safety employees -- police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel – has been long been coveted by big labor and their congressional allies.
Renewing this debate, Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) slipped the mandatory unionization of public safety workers into the Senate’s Supplemental spending bill, legislation regarding the allocation of war funds. After reviewing Senator Harry Reid’s proposed amendment, the Senate Parliamentarian ruled it not germane explicitly stating that the public worker unionization provisions had no place in a war supplemental bill.
Since Senate passage of the Supplemental spending bill, sans Reid’s unionization amendment, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) picked up right where Senator Reid left off attempting to, again, insert mandatory unionization language for public workers in the House version of the Supplemental bill. Responding to this development, AWF sent out the following release:
The Alliance for Worker Freedom opposes H.R. 4899, the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Bill, as it has been inappropriately amended to include legislation that forces the unionization of public safety workers – police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel. Under H.R. 4899, states would be forced to permit union bargaining over wages, hours, and all terms and conditions of employment.
Making no attempt to remain impartial, H.R. 4899 reads:
In many public safety agencies, it is the union that provides the institutional stability as elected leaders and appointees come and go... The Federal Government needs to encourage conciliation, mediation, and voluntary arbitration to aid and encourage employers and the representatives of their employees to reach and maintain agreements concerning rates of pay, hours, and working conditions, and to make all reasonable efforts through negotiations to settle their differences by mutual agreement reached through collective bargaining or by such methods as may be provided for in any applicable agreement for the settlement of disputes.
Policy with such sweeping implications should not be passed through legislative maneuvering, but be subject to an up or down vote in both the House and Senate.
Echoing AWF’s position, leaders from the National Coalition of Counties, National League of Cities, International City/Country, National Sheriffs’ Association, the International Public Management Association for Human Resources, International Municipal Lawyers Association, National Public Employer Labor Relations Association, the National Association of Towns and Townships, a coalition representing 3,066 counties, 19,000 cities and towns, sent a letter to Congress urging Members to exclude mandatory public employee unionization language from the Supplementary war bill.
For more information, contact AWF executive director Brian Johnson at 202.785.0066 or bjohnson@workerfreedom.org.
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