Police & Fire Monopoly-Bargaining Act

111th Congress
The National Right to Work Committee® opposes the Police & Fire Monopoly-Bargaining Act (H.R. 413 & S. 1611). The so-called “Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act of 2009,” introduced in the House on January 9, 2009 by Rep. Dale Kildee (D-Mich.) and in the Senate on August 6, 2009 by Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), would make Big Labor bosses monopoly bargaining agents for local and state police, firefighters, county paramedics, and other public-safety officers in all 50 states.



If enacted, H.R. 413 & S. 1611, by federal fiat, would force thousands of state and local governments to recognize union officials as public-safety officers’ “exclusive” bargaining agents.

If union organizers won a representation election by even 50% plus one of those voting, they would be empowered to negotiate contracts on behalf of 100% of the public-safety officers in each “bargaining unit.”

Congressional action would thus strip tens of thousands of police and firemen of their freedom to negotiate directly with their employers on their own behalf. This prohibition, enforced by fines and firings for violators, is the foundation of compulsory unionism.

Besides stripping public-safety employees of their freedom, federally imposed monopoly bargaining would soak state and local taxpayers for hundreds of millions of dollars annually just to pay for the direct costs it would add onto the contract-negotiation process.

And in its application, H.R. 413 & S. 1611 would endanger public safety by decimating volunteer fire departments that currently protect countless small communities across America. A fact well understood and opposed by small community mayors and volunteer firefighters alike. FULL STORY