Lame Duck Session Shenanigans

Here We Go!

I'm hearing some scuttlebutt about the laughably named Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act possibly being revived for a vote. It is a Reid-sponsored bill.

S.3194 would force ALL police and firefighters nationwide to unionize regardless of the wishes of the local community, overriding existing contracts and any state bans in effect.

H.R.413 and its nearly identical Senate counterpart, S.3194, would federally impose union monopoly bargaining by denying localities the option to refuse to grant a single public-safety union the power to speak for all front-line employees, including those who don’t want to join.

Monopoly bargaining, euphemistically labeled as “exclusive representation,” would be foisted on state and local police, firefighters, and other public-safety employees nationwide.

And in most states that already authorize public-safety union monopoly bargaining, H.R.413/S.3194 would widen its scope.

Because in difficult economic times, what we really need is MORE public employees enrolled in an organization that is thuggishly political and overtly hostile to the taxpayer. Minitrue calls this 'Employer-Employee Cooperation.'

And cooperate you will!

More chewy outrage below the fold.

NRO also weighed in on the subject this past June.

The problems imposed by unionized government are well understood, which is why 21 states either decline to require collective bargaining with public-sector unions or prohibit the practice outright. --------------------------------------

Consider the case of Hawaii, where coordinated strikes by public-school teachers and college professors in 2001 resulted in massive pay increases for educators who already were among the nation’s highest paid. It was a display of raw power on the part of the unions: Education was shut down, semester schedules were disrupted, students going to on-campus jobs were harassed with impunity by union thugs. So successful was the strategy that the professors authorized another strike just a few years later. It is impossible to imagine such a scene playing out in Texas or South Carolina, where the laws do not empower public-sector unions to commit legalized extortion.

Just anecdotally: a few weeks ago my friend who was preparing a large shindig for Linda McMahon kept trying to obtain a police presence on the street. He kept getting the runaround, but after pressing his point, finally was assured an officer would be there.

Nobody showed up.
A McMahon staffer told him that was "...par for the course."
I wonder which candidate the police union promoted in that election?

Finally, here's Steve Forbes discussing the Police and Firefighter Monopoly Bargaining Bill, which was virtually the same bill but more honestly named.

Please be sure to call your lame duck Congressman for the pleasure of hearing his soon-to-be-unemployed staff laugh at you with impunity.

posted by Laura. at 11:27 AM

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