Unions Now Control Fort Worth Budget
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Brian M Johnson
13 NOVEMBER 2007
202-785-0266
Unions Now Control Ft. Worth Budget
Prop. 1 dumps state’s funds in lap of unaccountable union bosses
Washington, D.C. — Today, the Alliance for Worker Freedom (AWF) issued a statement condemning the recent passage of Proposition 1 in Fort Worth, Texas which forces the city to engage in collective bargaining rights with local firefighters.
Collecting 55 percent of the votes and previously opposed 7-1 by the Fort Worth City Council, this legislation allows one sector of employment to have a direct advantage over another. According to AWF’s policy director Brian Johnson, “While firefighting is a brave and dangerous job, command-and-control legislation like Proposition 1 allows one group to hold the state budget hostage over demands at the expense of all other workers.”
Currently, 37 states have some form of legally protected collective bargaining rights. These rights vary in degree of transparency, from states that allow public access to bargaining sessions like Florida and Alaska, to states with completely closed sessions such as Delaware and Connecticut. Johnson says collective bargaining measures can render the employer or the state helpless to the demands of the union.
“Using public sympathy for one profession over another is merely a ploy in the strategy of Big Labor. When states cave and force collective bargaining, everyone loses,” says Johnson. “By giving one labor group authority to demand an increase on salaries, benefits and promotions, which Proposition 1 does, everyone else has something taken away.”
Proposition 1, according to Johnson, is a “slippery slope” which leads to Big Labor controlling the state. “If firefighters don’t get what they want, they strike. Imagine the extortion union bosses are already envisioning – ‘Either firefighters get what they want, or no fires get put out!’
Fort Worth joins the ranks of the other 21 cities in Texas who have already approved collective bargaining for firefighters.
AWF Website:
www.workerfreedom.org
