Judge Halts Union Release Time (Government Unions on the Run!)

Goldwater Institute ^ | June 6, 2012 | Goldwater Institute

[inkling]

Phoenix — Maricopa County Superior Court Katherine Cooper ruled in favor of the Goldwater Institute Tuesday to enjoin provisions of a contract between the City of Phoenix and the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association allowing officers to perform union work on police time.

The contract grants approximately $1 million in release time dedicated to union business, including to six police officers who perform exclusively union work and collect automatic overtime. The current contract expires on June 30. A new contract continuing release time was approved last month by a 4-4-1 vote by the Phoenix City Council, with the abstaining vote counting as a yes. The injunction applies only to the current contract, so additional legal efforts will be necessary to extend the ruling to the new contract that takes effect July 1.

According to the ruling, release time constitutes a subsidy because the contract "does not obligate PLEA to perform any specific service or give anything in return for the receipt of $1 million for release time."

“Union release time is blatantly unconstitutional,” said Clint Bolick, Vice President of Litigation at the Goldwater Institute.

[Freddd]

Jude who?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

An equally important issue is the government withholding union dues from paychecks.

That is a subsidy.

Force the unions to collect their dues the old fashioned way... send a bill, and hope it gets paid.

[MileHi]

Het, Jude, don’t make it bad...

[Night Hides Not]

Hey, Jude, don’t make it bad...

Looks like Jude is taking a sad song and making it better...

[inkling]

Ugh, “Judge” not “Jude” — my bad!

[jmcenanly]

Force the unions to collect their dues the old fashioned way... send a bill, and hope it gets paid.
Do you really want to meet their collection agency?

[MileHi]

I typo’ed a wise ass remark about a typo. Sheesh

[tacticalogic]

Do you really want to meet their collection agency?

If you can choose when and where, it could be a successful, productive meeting.

[Psycho_Bunny]

“six police officers who perform exclusively union work”

Absolutely outrageous.

[RobinOfKingston]

...a 4-4-1 vote by the Phoenix City Council, with the abstaining vote counting as a yes.

What the hell is this? Since when is an abstention considered a "yes"? Seems to me there's a whole lot of "deemin'" goin' on.

[G Larry]

How many double negatives does it take to make a positive?

Had to stand on my head and read this 3 times to figure out it was a good thing.

2.5 seems to be the answer to my opening question.....

[E. Pluribus Unum]

It’s not my problem, since I don’t belong to a union.

[pierrem15]

Which part is more outrageous? That they get paid for doing union work? Or that 6 officers get paid $1 million ($166,000/yr each)?

The FOP needs to be reminded that an infantryman gets paid about $20K per year.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

      

"People of the same trade seldom meet together even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public or some contrivance to raise prices.” - Adam Smith

[publius911]

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