Save Volunteer Firefighters from Big Labor Bosses

National Institute for Labor Relations Research | Stan Greer

[Big Labor Hater]

Federalization of Public-Safety Union Monopoly Would Harm Police, Firemen, Taxpayers So-Called ‘Exclusive Representation’ Hands Union Bosses Inordinate Political Power

*** Currently, each state has very broad authority to set its own policy regarding the unionization of state and local government employees in general and public-safety officers in particular. Elected officials in a number of states have caved into Big Labor demands by enacting state laws empowering union officials to seize monopoly-bargaining control over public-safety employees. Under state monopoly-bargaining laws, public-safety officers, including those who have chosen not to be union members, can be forced to accept union officials as their “exclusive” negotiators in employment-contract talks.

However, roughly half of the 50 states have so far either refused completely to grant union bosses monopoly control over public-safety employment, or have acquiesced to a relatively limited form of “exclusive” bargaining. It has long been a goal of government union officials to wield broad monopoly-bargaining power over public-safety officers in every state across the nation.

The so-called “Public Safety Employer-Employer Cooperation Act” (H.R. 980), introduced in February by Congressman Dale Kildee (D-Mich.), would satisfy this Big Labor objective. It would establish a new federal mandate imposing union “exclusive representation,” i.e. monopoly bargaining, over state and local police and firefighters and other public-safety employees.

Hundreds of thousands of policemen, firemen and paramedics who up to now have been free under state law to negotiate on their own behalf would be stripped of that freedom by H.R. 980.

*** Although monopoly bargaining alone does not legally force a worker to join a union, it obviously does put him or her “under powerful compulsion to join,” as then-top AFL-CIO lawyer Thomas Harris admitted back in the 1960s.

In the 22 states with Right to Work laws on the books, Big Labor can’t get employees fired for refusal to join or pay dues or “agency” fees to an unwanted union. But if federal labor law at the same time authorized union officials to represent the only public-safety “employee” perspective in contract negotiations, the Right to Work would be seriously undermined.

If H.R. 980 or similar federal legislation were enacted, the vast majority of firemen and police officers would be understandably reluctant to oppose or even question the union. Many public-safety employees would join the union even though they didn’t really want to. Then power-thirsty union officials like Harold Schaitberger, the politically hyperactive president of the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF), would use these employees’ dues money to build their political machines in state after state.

Union officials like Mr. Schaitberger know that, if they can spread public-safety monopoly bargaining throughout Right to Work states where it is now rare or even non-existent, it will be much easier for them to swing these states for Big Labor presidential, U.S. Senate, and gubernatorial candidates in the future.

*** By putting firefighters and EMT’s in particular under intense pressure to join the IAFF, the Kildee bill would also help Mr. Schaitberger crack down on volunteer firefighting across America. Currently, 73% of all U.S. firemen are volunteers. And roughly half of these volunteers are professional firemen who donate their spare time to help their communities, saving local taxpayers an estimated $37 billion annually.

But Article XV, Section 3 of the IAFF Constitution bars IAFF members from becoming volunteer firemen. Mr. Schaitberger and other IAFF bosses oppose volunteer firefighting because, they believe, it ultimately reduces the amount of union dues they collect.

And the Kildee bill would greatly intensify the impact of the IAFF hierarchy’s ban on volunteering by padding union membership rolls in jurisdictions across the country, and thereby increasing the number of professional firefighters who are subject to the ban.

Federalizing monopoly-bargaining restrictions on firemen’s freedom of association could thus ultimately force volunteer fire departments across the country either to disband or to operate while severely understaffed.

State and local taxpayers and countless communities across America that cannot afford to hire enough professional firemen to meet their needs would be victimized. According to the National Volunteer Fire Council, of the roughly 30,000 fire departments around the country, 71% are all volunteer, 17% are mostly volunteer, 5% are mostly career, and just 7% are all career.

State government-imposed union monopoly bargaining has already given the Harold Schaitbergers of this world far too much power over taxpayers and the public employees who are forced to bankroll Big Labor political crusades.

The last thing Congress should do now is spread this ugly system to all 50 states.

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Nothing here is to be construed as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill before any legislative body.

[Big Labor Hater]

Big Labor Union Bosses in DC are teaming up with Democrats in the Congress to pass a bill that will impose monopoly bargaining on every public safety worker in the U.S., including all firefighters, policeme, and EMTs.

The bill, H.R. 980, having already passed the House, is headed to Senate. Call your Senator at 202-224-3121 and tell him to oppose the Police and Firefighter Monopoly Bargaining Bill.