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Legislation & Politics | ||
AFSCME Provides Support for Collective Bargaining for Public Safety OfficersStatement for the Record The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) submits the following statement for the hearing record in support of H.R. 980, the Public Safety Officers Employer-Employee Cooperation Act. AFSCME is a labor organization that represents over 1.4 million workers, predominantly in the public sector. Tens of thousands of our members are employed as law enforcement officers, corrections officers, emergency medical technicians and paramedics. These public safety officers are dedicated and loyal employees of state correctional facilities, city and township police and sheriff’s departments and emergency medical services departments. They work in dangerous conditions in prisons and on the street and administering to medically compromised patients performing tasks that put their lives in danger every workday. Whether it is responding to terrorist’s strikes, chemical attacks, mass tragedies or prison riots, they are our nation’s first responders and our first line of defense. The conditions under which they work include long on-duty hours, high stress, unsanitary conditions, and exposure to hazardous chemicals, infectious diseases, dangerous weapons and violent criminals. Despite these conditions and the difficult jobs that they perform, they are true professionals and are invested in their careers and are dedicated to protecting and serving the public. We must insure that they are afforded the same workplace rights as those they protect. While many of our public safety officers currently have collective bargaining rights, many do not. The Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act (H.R. 980) extends collective bargaining rights to public safety officers who do not currently have the right to engage in collective bargaining. These corrections and law enforcement officers, as well as fire fighters and emergency medical services personnel deserve the right to engage in collective bargaining the same as all private sector workers and the 60 percent of public workers who have the right to collective bargaining. AFSCME supports this bill because we are confident that it will promote a collaborative process and will improve employer and employee relations in state and local government. The bill would require that each state provide minimum collective bargaining rights to their public safety officers but allows the state to decide the manner in which they are conferred. Over half the states have enacted their own collective bargaining laws and those states would be exempt from this federal statute. For the remaining states with no collective bargaining laws, this bill outlines certain provisions that must be included in a collective bargaining bill but leaves the major decisions to the state legislature. In the interest of public safety, the bill does not permit strikes. Furthermore, it does not provide for mandatory binding arbitration. The overriding objective of the bill is to promote a productive partnership between employers and employees, and for that reason, AFSCME supports the bill. Origin of Concept of Collective BargainingCollective bargaining is not new. Originally, most of the case law and much of the legislation in the field of labor relations were concerned with the prevention of open hostility resulting from disputes, rather than promoting cooperation between employers and employees. When it became apparent in 1917 that governmental intervention would be necessary to prevent labor disputes from interfering with war production, the establishment of the War Labor Board gave recognition to the right of workers to organize in trade unions and to bargain collectively through their chosen representatives. Extending governmental protection over the collective bargaining process was necessary to encourage settlement of conditions of employment at the bargaining table. Subsequently, Congress enacted legislation conferring collective bargaining rights to transportation employees in the Railway Labor Act enacted in 1926, to private sector employees in the National Labor Relations Act in 1935, and to federal employees in the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute in 1979. Most recently, Congress extended the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute to congressional employees in the Congressional Accountability Act. The only substantial segment of workers not covered by federal labor law is employees of state and local governments. • Provides the right of public safety officers to bargain over wages, hours and working conditions; AFSCME has decades of experience representing employees in labor-management relations and has learned that relationships and partnerships based on trust, mutual respect and open communications produce shared accountability and responsibility. When each side of the table has a stake in the outcome, an agreement can be reached that serves management and employees, as well as the public. Public safety agencies benefit immeasurably from productive partnerships and studies have shown that communities that promote such cooperation enjoy more effective and more efficient delivery of services. In short, collective bargaining is the most effective method for employee input into decisions affecting operations and working conditions. We know from experience that the collective bargaining process is a tried and true method of improving communication among public safety officers and management. The result is safer and more effective public safety systems, which allows working committees on sensitive issues like Health and Safety, Quality Partnership, Labor Management and Community Partnerships to exist on an ongoing basis and not just during contract negotiations. For instance, in the correctional setting, safety concerns that management would not be aware of otherwise can be brought up in these regular committee meetings by officers who work in the cell blocks with the inmates and who witness first hand unsafe conditions. We know that labor and management most certainly don’t always agree on every issue at the outset of the process but, without exception, the existence of a bargaining process means public safety officer unions and their management counterparts can make accommodations and compromises that are often necessary to achieve a mutually beneficial agreement. The establishment of a process for working out problems can set the stage for solving many of the problems that are an everyday occurrence in the workplace. Public safety officers deserve the same right to discuss workplace issues with their employer that the federal government grants to most other workers. Public safety officers work in dangerous conditions often with the most violent members of our society. They risk their lives to ensure that the public is held safe. They sacrifice their safety for the sake of the public. In systems where there is no collective bargaining, communication is stifled and the dangers faced by uniformed personnel are exacerbated. For the above reasons, AFSCME supports the extension of collective bargaining rights to public safety officers and we ask that Congress acknowledge the dedication and service of public safety employees by giving these employees these basic rights. We ask that these public servants be put on an equal footing with other workers. With these important rights, labor and management will work as a team to carry out the public safety mission in a quality work environment. Thank you for the opportunity to submit remarks for the record on H.R. 980, The Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act. Attached are letters from AFSCME corrections officers in support of the Public Safety Officers Employer Employee Corporation Act. |
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