Posted on 06/17/2010 7:03:46 AM PDT by reaganaut1
The Senate is moving closer to passing legislation that would require states to grant public-safety employees, including police, firefighters and emergency medical workers, the right to collectively bargain over hours and wages.
The bill, known as the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act, would mainly affect about 20 states that don't grant collective-bargaining rights statewide for public-safety workers or that prohibit such bargaining. State and municipal associations, as well as business groups, oppose it, saying it will lead to higher labor costs and taxes, at a time of budget deficits.
The bill, backed by at least six Republicans in the Senate, prohibits strikes and leaves to states' discretion whether to engage in collective bargaining in several areas, including health benefits and pensions.
If the legislation passes and states choose not to grant the minimum collective-bargaining rights outlined in the bill, the Federal Labor Relations Authority, which oversees labor-management relations for federal employees, would step in and implement collective-bargaining rights for these workers.
The House passed a version of the bill in 2007. If enacted, the legislation would be a significant victory for unions, which are smarting over the failure of Democrats to pass a separate, broader bill that would have made it easier for unions to organize workers, especially in the private sector, where union membership has been in decline for years.
The public-safety bargaining bill was first introduced in the mid-1990s. Union officials say they now have their best shot to pass it, but that time could run out if Democrats don't act soon and go on to lose several Senate seats in November
More public-sector workers belonged to a union than private-sector workers last year for the first time ever.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Government forced unions.
bad idea
Is this even constitutional?
Public Employees are the barbarian hordes of our time. “collective-bargaining rights” simply organizes and intensifies their destructive power.
At what point is someone no longer a professional and just a worker? I would say that unions, counting your hours, billing for so-called “overtime” falls into the feneral worker catagory, and they should be paid accordingly. Right now they have outsized benefits, retierement plans, and salaries.
bookmark.
Madison, Hamilton, Jay, Jefferson, Washington, Morris, Franklin, Lincoln, et. al would have said no, but what do they know.
Who are the six? Anyone know?
>> backed by at least six Republicans
Who ARE these scum?
Any bets the Wonder Twins are 2 of the 6?
>> Any bets the Wonder Twins are 2 of the 6?
That’s not a bet, it’s a sure thing. :-)
The idea is to concentrate power in D.C. Giving state workers more leverage to force higher wages and benefits contributes to the spreading bankruptcy of state governments which, in turn, works to make these more dependant upon federal bailouts. Federal bailouts always have strings attached and always reduce the freedom of those who receive them while increasing the authority of those giving them. And, of course, it tends to create more rat voters and activists as these same state workers jump to make sure their nests are properly feathered regardless of cost or consequence (that is the hope of the leftists pushing this stuff anyway). This is wholly in line with the overall agenda of the leftists to grab and hold as much power as possible.
Hey, civil war 2.
The states worker union bosses would be running the taxpayers as their own plantation.
Republican Sen. Mike Johanns of Nebraska called the bill "reasonable." "For several years now, we've seen the benefit of a similar policy in Nebraska which prevents public employees from going on strike while helping to establish reasonable compensation ranges." The other Republican co-sponsors in the Senate are Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
Earlier in the article it said Judd Gregg of NH introduced the legislation.
There you go -- your six traitor pigs lining up to rape the taxpayer. A painful pox on all of them.
if they can do this, why not just wipe-out Right to Work in all states where it currently exists?
The first thing Mitch Daniels did after becoming governor of Indiana was to decertify the UAW as bargaining agent for Indiana state employees.
The UAW had been installed by Evan Bayh 12 years prior.
“Surprisingly” the state budget picture improved.
This is just another attempt by the left to roll a boulder down into the well of our democratic republic.
Unionization of “public servants” was once a contradiction in terms. But now, the inmates are running the asylum so it’s OK.
“No matter how lavishly overpaid, civil servants everywhere are convinced they are horribly underpaid-but all public employees have larceny in their hearts or they wouldn’t be feeding at the public trough.” Robert Heinlein, “Friday”
I think Heinlein also wrote (If he didn’t, he should have) “Any government employees, including teachers, who are unhappy with the circumstances of their employment, are free to quit their jobs and work for a living.”
and from Frank Herbert, “Power attracts the corruptible. Absolute power attracts the absolutely corruptible. This is the danger of entrenched bureaucracy to its subject population. Even the spoils systems are preferable because levels of tolerance are lower and the corrupt can be thrown out periodically. Entrenched bureaucracy seldom can be touched short of violence. Beware when Civil Service and Military join hands.”
Which has exactly what to do with state employees??? Ah, accept a little Federal money and when you bite down the hook is set.
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