Union-Backed Bill Would Force Monopoly Bargaining on Public Safety Employees

NLPC reports:

Ever so quietly, America passed a milestone in 2009. For the first time in our history the number of employees in the public sector belonging to a labor union exceeded the number in the private sector. Proposed legislation in Congress would push this trend along further. The benignly-named Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act (H.R.413, S.1611) would mandate union monopoly bargaining for state and local public-safety employees. Its brand of "cooperation," strongly backed by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and other unions, would force police, fire, ambulance, and corrections departments across the country to create collective bargaining units to cover employees. If evidence is any guide, however, this expansion of public-sector unionism is likely to produce higher taxes, strained budgets and more strikes.

The driving forces behind this bill are Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Mich. and Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. Kildee introduced the House bill back in January 2009, with Gregg following with an almost identical Senate version in August. That no committee action has occurred to date is misleading. The House in July 2007 passed a similar bill. As of late April, the new House bill had attracted 212 co-sponsors - 166 Democrats and 46 Republicans - or almost half of all members. Pressure from the Obama White House, labor leaders and union-sponsored PACs may well put the proposal over the top. If that doesn't work, then Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has a back-up plan. On April 12, he re-introduced the Gregg measure as an identical bill, S.3194, with the intent of bypassing standard parliamentary procedure. The late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., had this tactic in mind when he unveiled similar legislation on September 13, 2001, just two days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks; he tried to slip the bill through the Senate by "unanimous consent" without a hearing or a floor vote. Given that the recent health insurance overhaul came to be law in such a manner, the possibility for quick, under-the-radar passage here must be considered very real.

Rent seeking gone wild.