Take D.C. off the beat

H.R. 980 would end local control of public safety labor contracts

Published August 7, 2007 at midnight

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Sometimes, Washington politicians so arrogantly trample state laws and municipal ordinances that it's a wonder we even bother with policy-making at the local level. The latest possible intrusion comes in the form of H.R. 980, which would force every state to allow police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel to unionize.

The bill zoomed through the House of Representatives by a 314-97 vote last month and is on the calendar for the Senate to consider when it returns from summer vacation next month.

Colorado is one of the dozen states that allows localities to decide, jurisdiction by jurisdiction, whether collective bargaining for public safety personnel is in the best interest of the community.

H.R. 980 would overrule that local prerogative. As the bill moves to the Senate, we urge Colorado Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar to reject this bill, and preserve the freedom of local residents to decide which elements of compensation and working conditions can be negotiated in a labor agreement with safety employees.

With collective bargaining a local option in Colorado, a number of municipalities, including in the metro area Denver, Aurora, Commerce City, Englewood and Littleton, have already allowed safety personnel to unionize.

But some places haven't, and life goes on. For instance, last September residents of Fort Collins overwhelmingly rejected a charter amendment that would have allowed the police to unionize.

First responders and other safety workers should be ultimately accountable to the people in the communities they serve - the folks who pay their salaries.

H.R. 980 would short-circuit this process of citizen feedback, and put the National Labor Relations Board in charge of overseeing labor negotiations with public-safety personnel.

Why is this a problem? For one thing, even in those states that mandate collective bargaining, no single set of rules governs labor agreements.

The terms for negotiating such matters as binding arbitration, staffing levels and the amount of vacation time employees receive vary from place to place, as they should.

H.R. 980 would substitute one-size-fits-all mandates for local flexibility.

Local officials, represented by the Colorado Municipal League and the National League of Cities, lobbied against the bill. They worry that it would let the federal labor board impose unfunded mandates on cities and counties.

As an example, H.R. 980 would give federal regulators the leeway to determine compensation and benefit packages. Just about everything other than pension terms could be dictated from Washington.

At its heart, this is an issue of federalism. The 10th Amendment states that those powers that are not granted to the federal government in the Constitution are reserved to states and the people. The nation's founding document is silent about collective bargaining.

Congress should respect the plain language of the Constitution and leave decisions about pay, working conditions and other employment rules for police and firefighters where they belong - in the hands of local citizens and their elected representatives in the communities that safety officers protect.

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